Recovering Power

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Factors in Opposition Performance: The Conservative Experience since 1867

   • Stuart Ball

   Pages 1-27

3. The Disraelian Achievement: 1868–1874

   • Angus Hawkins

   Pages 28-46

4. A New Style and Content: 1880–1885 and 1886

   • David Steele

   Pages 47-74

5. Opposition from Strength: 1892–1895

   • David Steele

   Pages 75-91

6. Faction and Failure: 1905–1910

   • Frans Coetzee

   Pages 92-112

7. Conservatism in Crisis: 1910–1915

   • David Dutton

   Pages 113-133

8. Democracy and the Rise of Labour: 1924 and 1929–1931

   • Stuart Ball

   Pages 134-168

9. The New Conservatism? 1945–1951

   • David Willetts

   Pages 169-191

10. Planning for Power: 1964–1970

    • Mark Garnett

    Pages 192-218

11. The Making of Thatcherism: 1974–1979

    • Dennis Kavanagh

    Pages 219-242

12. The Barren Years: 1997–2005

    • Anthony Seldon, Peter Snowdon

    Pages 243-275

13. Back Matter

    Pages 276-287

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The Conservative Party's periods in opposition have been of crucial importance. They have seen major changes in direction, and often been the springboard for recovering power. There have also been leadership crises and bitter divisions, and recovery was never inevitable. In the first study to examine the topic as a whole, leading authorities present new evidence and interpretations. The book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the Conservative Party and of opposition in modern British politics.

• Conservative Party
• constitution
• democracy
• Israel
• politics
• Thatcher
• British Politics

'The best account of the historic causes of the Conservative Party's troubles...' - The Economist

• School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, UK

  Stuart Ball

• Brighton College, UK

  Anthony Seldon

STUART BALL is Reader in History at the University of Leicester. His publications include Baldwin and the Conservative Party (1988), The Conservative Party and British Politics 1902-1951 (1995), Winston Churchill (2003), and (with Anthony Seldon) Conservative Century: The Conservative Party since 1900 (1994).

ANTHONY SELDON is the Founding Director of the Institute of Contemporary British History and Headmaster of Brighton College, UK.

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