William Ewart Gladstone

How can one man be both conservative and revolutionary, cautious and dangerously impulsive—and somehow seem not to contradict himself? James Bryce begins with the puzzle of William Ewart Gladstone.

In Victorian Britain, Gladstone’s parliamentary life ran alongside the country’s political story for four decades. Bryce traces the forces that shaped him—from Scottish inheritance and Oxford’s religious traditions to his apprenticeship under Sir Robert Peel—and follows a statesman whose convictions could carry him from defending institutions to challenging them. To admirers, his earnestness and force were unmistakable; to many of his contemporaries, he seemed a schemer hungry for power. What held these opposing qualities together—and where would their force lead him?

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