Making Aristocracy Work

Making Aristocracy Work explores the political role of the British peerage in the thirty years before the First World War. It charts its transition from ruling class to embattled faction, analysing the response of the peers to the challenge of democracy and their impact on the constitutional order which emerged from the turbulent politics of the late Victorian and Edwardian era. The book opens with a study of the House of Lords, assessing its strengths and weaknesses as a political institution and offering new interpretations of the constitutional crises of 1884-5 and 1909-11. It proceeds to assess the wider activity of the peerage in national, local, and imperial government, and the changing nature of its mentalite as a political elite. The evolution of the peerage is no simplistic story of descent from power to impotence, argues Dr Adonis. Under Lord Salisbury, the peers met challenges to their political standing with a determination to refashion their authority and safeguard their influence. They partially succeeded in so doing, and their efforts - successful or not - left a heavy imprint on Britain's fledgling democracy. A readable book thoroughly grounded in the aristocracy's rich archives, Making Aristocracy Work is an important contribution to our understanding of the development of Britain's modern political system.