Castlereagh
The Biography of a Statesman
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
The best political biography of the year' Jonathan Sumption, Spectator
'Wonderful . . . A Life so nearly complete it need never be written again' Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement
By the author of the Orwell Prize-winning Citizen Clem
Damned in coruscating verse by Shelley and Byron, his coffin hissed at during his funeral, Lord Castlereagh has one of the blackest reputations in British history. But as John Bew shows, this is but a half-drawn portrait. His gripping biography reveals a shy, inarticulate but passionate man; a towering political figure of implacable principles who redrew the map of Europe, fought a duel with a cabinet colleague and would tragically take his own life amid rumours of scandal and madness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Viscount Castlereagh (1769 1822) is remembered as the arch-reactionary of the 1815 Congress of Vienna, which assembled after Napoleon's defeat. He supported the resulting agreement that strengthened European monarchies at the expense of rising nationalist and democratic movements. Historian Dew, lecturer at King's College, London, insists that Castlereagh was subtle, sensible, and quintessentially English, a pioneer of realpolitik: diplomacy based on practicality rather than idealism. An Irish aristocrat, he entered Parliament at 25 and quickly impressed Prime Minister William Pitt. Although a reformer, Castlereagh detested the extremism of the French Revolution, which appealed to other Irish patriots who never forgave his suppression of the 1798 uprising and support of the 1801 union with Britain. As minister for war after 1804 and secretary of state after 1812, Castlereagh was a dominating figure during and after the Napoleonic Wars. Bew leans over backward to rehabilitate his subject, an aloof character unpopular during his lifetime even in England, despite his greatness as a statesman. Bew's conclusions are convincing; most readers will welcome this thoughtful and lucidly written biography. 20 color illus.; maps.
