The Marquess of Londonderry: Aristocracy, Power and Politics in Britain and Ireland, Revised Edition (International Library of Twentieth Century History)

The decline and fall of the British aristocracy from the late nineteenth century became headlong and irreversible in the twentieth, yet many tried by every means to cling to power, wealth and influence. And there is no better example than the Seventh Marquess whose life from 1878 to 1949 spanned and mirrored the period. The Londonderrys had enjoyed immense wealth in minerals and land in Britain and Ireland, had played leading roles in Parliament and state and in the Conservative Party, and in an earlier time Lord Londonderry would have continued their patrician prominence. But Neil Fleming, drawing on original state and family papers, and placing Londonderry in both the history and the context of the political theory, of aristocracy, shows a struggle against marginalization and decline.