In January 1906, after ten years in opposition, Britain's Liberal Party was swept back into the power with a parliamentary majority far beyond its expectations. With its enemies scattered and almost unlimited resources at its command, an exultant Ministry of All the Talents--headed by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and including Lloyd George, Herbert Asquith, Richard Haldane, and Winston Churchill--set eagerly to work on the creation of a Liberal utopia. The promised land, it seemed to the new government, had finally been reached.

Five years later--after turbulent battles, major disappointments, and moderate achievements--the Liberals limped back to office for the third and last time. Their splendid majority of 1906 had disappeared. Confronted by an increasingly vociferous Opposition, they were obliged to rely on the Labour and Irish Nationalist Parties for their continuance for power.

In The Last Liberal Governments Peter Rowland clearly demonstrates the reasons the Liberals failed to fulfill their original promise. His highly detailed study of British politics of that period draws upon both the formidable amount of published material available on the five crucial years and such unpublished accounts as the Campbell-Bannerman papers. In addition to surveying the degree of success of the government's domestic and foreign policies, he deals with the Tariff Reform movement and the struggle for supremacy in the Unionist Party, the emergence of the Labor Party, and the unremitting efforts of the Irish Nationalists to bring Home Rule to the forefront of the political scene. In all, he presents a fascinating panorama of politics in the Edwardian era, taking a fresh look at both the events of that period and the men who shaped them.