Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (British Lives)

Lord Salisbury (1830-1903) is now a subject of intense historical attention. But while other scholars have chosen to present biographies of him, this important and accessible new study moves away from the conventional "life" and reconstructs the thought-world of late-Victorian Conservatives for the first time. In doing so it provides a new location within which Victorian politics and Salisbury himself can be evaluated. The book will therefore be essential reading for anyone interested in British political ideas. "Lord Salisbury (1830-1903) is now a subject of intense historical attention. This new study moves away from conventional biography and presents an original portrait of the mental world inhabited by late-Victorian Conservatives at the time when their world-view was coming under severe strain." "At the centre of the picture is the third Marquis of Salisbury, but Lord Salisbury's World does not simply tell the story of his life and politics. Instead, it asks sensitive questions about how the political, intellectual and religious environments of the late-Victorian period seemed to one of its sharpest intellects, and it situates Salisbury and his immediate entourage in a wide landscape of relationships, perceptions and problems." "Its starting points are two: that politics is a situational activity, and that situations reside in the minds of the beholders. For that reason Professor Bentley draws the reader into Conservative assumptions about time and space, property and society, religion and the state, the past and the future - the very language in which they expressed themselves. His book will therefore be required reading for all those interested in British political ideas."--Jacket Lord Salisbury (1830–1903) is now a subject of intense historical attention. This important study moves away from conventional biography and presents an original portrait of the mental world inhabited by late Victorian Conservatives at the time when their world-view was coming under severe strain. At the centre of the picture is the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, but Lord Salisbury's World does not simply tell the story of his life and politics. Instead, it asks sensitive questions about how the political, intellectual and religious environments of the late Victorian period seemed to one of its sharpest intellects, and it situates Salisbury and his immediate entourage in a wide landscape of relationships, perceptions and problems. Professor Bentley takes the reader into Conservative assumptions about time and space, property and society, religion and the state, and the past and the future - the very language in which they expressed themselves. Michael Bentley. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.