Read Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography

Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography

Muriel Evelyn Chamberlain

4.9/5 (28376 ratings)

Description:The 4th Earl of Aberdeen was a key figure in nineteenth-century British politics, yet he has never received the attention given to Castlereagh, Canning, or Palmerston. Indeed this is the first full-scale political biography by a professional historian since his death in 1860. His reputation was damned as the Prime Minister who 'muddled' into the Crimean War and then conducted that war with staggering incompetence, His life-long rival, Lord Palmerston, is remembered as the great war leader, who saved his country's reputation. Yet, if the two men had retired at the conventional age of 65, it is Palmerston who would be remembered as the dangerous maverick, Aberdeen as the statesman. As Dr. Chamberlain shows, Aberdeen cannot be acquitted if all the blame for the disasters of the Crimean period, but the story she reveals is by no means the conventional one, and she sets it in its proper context, occupying less than two years near the end of a long and distinguished public life.For Aberdeen was at the centre of British politics for over fifty years. He was the ward of the Younger Pitt, and later the close friend of the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel and William Gladstone. He was the British Ambassador to Austria during the formation of the vital coalition at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and accompanied the allied armies across war-torn Europe. He was Foreign Secretary during the closing stages of the Greek War of Independence and the Eastern crisis of 1828-30, and again during the dangerous crises with France and the United States in the 1840s. He was Colonial Secretary just after the emancipation of the slaves throughout the British Empire and at a critical time in both Canada and South Africa. He only became Prime Minister at the age of 68, but was to lead a remarkable coalition which (largely by Aberdeen's own exertions) created the Liberal Party of the late nineteenth century and embarked on a great reform programme, which was only only aborted by the Crimean War. If Palmerston was a liberal abroad but a Tory at home, Aberdeen was the reverse. Aberdeen was the victim of an unusually vicious and successful smear campaign in the 1850s, not because he was a weak, incompetent man who did not matter but because he was an important man who had made bitter enemies.His network of continental friendships was unusually wide and he corresponded for many years with leading foreign statesmen, including Metternich and Guizot. He left voluminous papers (second in size only to those of his protégé, Gladstone) which throw light on almost every domestic and foreign crisis from 1802 to 1859, and which reveal a great deal about the secret side of British diplomacy. They show that the most confidential information was not entrusted to the Foreign Office archives. They are also frank about domestic questions, including the manipulation of the electoral system after 1832. In Dr. Chamberlain's new biography, Aberdeen's papers have been used in conjunction with the official archives, both British and foreign, and numerous collections of private papers, some of which have only recently become available.As Dr Chamberlain shows, Aberdeen also deserves to be remembered for other than political reasons. As a young man he was an adventurous traveller in the Ottoman Empire, an archaeologist well ahead of his time, the President of the Society of Antiquaries for nearly forty years, and an important figure in the Elgin Marbles controversy. He was a reforming Scottish landlord, who transformed his estates from some of the most backward in Scotland to models of their kind--and he never turned a tenant off them. His private life was marked by an extraordinary series of tragedies, but the man himself - a devoted husband and father and a loyal friend - is as different as could be imagined from the dour, proud aristocrat of popular legend.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography. To get started finding Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: —

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: —

Release: —

ISBN: 0582504627

Description: The 4th Earl of Aberdeen was a key figure in nineteenth-century British politics, yet he has never received the attention given to Castlereagh, Canning, or Palmerston. Indeed this is the first full-scale political biography by a professional historian since his death in 1860. His reputation was damned as the Prime Minister who 'muddled' into the Crimean War and then conducted that war with staggering incompetence, His life-long rival, Lord Palmerston, is remembered as the great war leader, who saved his country's reputation. Yet, if the two men had retired at the conventional age of 65, it is Palmerston who would be remembered as the dangerous maverick, Aberdeen as the statesman. As Dr. Chamberlain shows, Aberdeen cannot be acquitted if all the blame for the disasters of the Crimean period, but the story she reveals is by no means the conventional one, and she sets it in its proper context, occupying less than two years near the end of a long and distinguished public life.For Aberdeen was at the centre of British politics for over fifty years. He was the ward of the Younger Pitt, and later the close friend of the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel and William Gladstone. He was the British Ambassador to Austria during the formation of the vital coalition at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and accompanied the allied armies across war-torn Europe. He was Foreign Secretary during the closing stages of the Greek War of Independence and the Eastern crisis of 1828-30, and again during the dangerous crises with France and the United States in the 1840s. He was Colonial Secretary just after the emancipation of the slaves throughout the British Empire and at a critical time in both Canada and South Africa. He only became Prime Minister at the age of 68, but was to lead a remarkable coalition which (largely by Aberdeen's own exertions) created the Liberal Party of the late nineteenth century and embarked on a great reform programme, which was only only aborted by the Crimean War. If Palmerston was a liberal abroad but a Tory at home, Aberdeen was the reverse. Aberdeen was the victim of an unusually vicious and successful smear campaign in the 1850s, not because he was a weak, incompetent man who did not matter but because he was an important man who had made bitter enemies.His network of continental friendships was unusually wide and he corresponded for many years with leading foreign statesmen, including Metternich and Guizot. He left voluminous papers (second in size only to those of his protégé, Gladstone) which throw light on almost every domestic and foreign crisis from 1802 to 1859, and which reveal a great deal about the secret side of British diplomacy. They show that the most confidential information was not entrusted to the Foreign Office archives. They are also frank about domestic questions, including the manipulation of the electoral system after 1832. In Dr. Chamberlain's new biography, Aberdeen's papers have been used in conjunction with the official archives, both British and foreign, and numerous collections of private papers, some of which have only recently become available.As Dr Chamberlain shows, Aberdeen also deserves to be remembered for other than political reasons. As a young man he was an adventurous traveller in the Ottoman Empire, an archaeologist well ahead of his time, the President of the Society of Antiquaries for nearly forty years, and an important figure in the Elgin Marbles controversy. He was a reforming Scottish landlord, who transformed his estates from some of the most backward in Scotland to models of their kind--and he never turned a tenant off them. His private life was marked by an extraordinary series of tragedies, but the man himself - a devoted husband and father and a loyal friend - is as different as could be imagined from the dour, proud aristocrat of popular legend.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography. To get started finding Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Special Offer | $0.00

Special Offer! | $0.00

Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography

Lord Aberdeen: A Political Biography

More Books

The Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa

'Pax Britannica'?: British Foreign Policy, 1789-1914

'Pax Britannica'?: British Foreign Policy, 1789-1914

Decolonization

Decolonization

British Foreign Policy in the Age of Palmerston

British Foreign Policy in the Age of Palmerston

Lord Palmerston

Lord Palmerston

Longman Companion to the Formation of the European Empires, 1488-1920 (Longman Companions to History Series)

Longman Companion to the Formation of the European Empires, 1488-1920 (Longman Companions to History Series)

Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century (Longman Companions To History)

Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century (Longman Companions To History)

The new imperialism, (Historical Association. Pamphlets. General series, no. 73)

The new imperialism, (Historical Association. Pamphlets. General series, no. 73)

Britain And India: The Interaction Of Two Peoples

Britain And India: The Interaction Of Two Peoples