In this new study, one of the first to appear in an important new series that will reassess key political figures in world history since the Renaissance, Martin Pugh provides a concise but comprehensive survey of Lloyd George's life, personality and political career. It is both an up-to-date synthesis of recent work that has appeared on Lloyd George and also an original interpretation of his place in the evolution of modern British politics.

Dr. Pugh challenges the traditional view of Lloyd George as an outsider in British politics. Instead, he sees him as a rebel who always knew how to make the system work for him.

He examines the key achievements of the career — the reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Edwardian Liberal governments who laid down our modern system of taxation and the welfare state; the Prime Minister who 'won the war' in 1916-18, and left a lasting impression on the nature and organisation of British government; and, in the interwar years, the effective early champion of a Keynesian approach to Britain's social and economic problems.

But, despite these domestic reforming achievements, Dr. Pugh concludes that Lloyd George was far from being a conventional radical or left-wing politician. From the beginning he was out of step with much of the Liberal tradition, and was instead attracted by Joseph Chamberlain's brand of politics: a mixture of state interventionism at home, and a bold, patriotic policy abroad. These two persistent themes in his career gave Lloyd George a footing in Liberal, Labour and Conservative politics, but a comfortable home in no party: hence his detachment and eventual isolation.

This is a thoughtful, balanced and highly readable assessment of a still-controversial career. It will make an auspicious debut for this ambitious new series.