Synthesising the latest research, this new and readable overview of British party clinics from 1852 to 1886 charts the important transition from mid-Victorian parliamentary government to the modern British party system.

Angus Hawkins explores the changing function of political parties, parliamentary leadership, constituency organisation and their relations with a widening electorate, both before and after the 1867 and 1884 Reform Acts. The Liberal and Conservative governments of this period are reassessed and the impact of prominent individuals such as Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli examined.

Concluding with the great Liberal schism over Irish Home Rule in 1886, the author describes how the demise of parliamentary government made way for a national party system which provided the constitutional context for modern British politics.