The Impossible Office?
The History of the British Prime Minister

How and why has the office of British Prime Minister lasted an incredible 300 years? Who have been the best, and worst?

Anthony Seldon (Author), Jonathan Meakin (Assisted by), Illias Thoms (Assisted by)

9781316515327, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 April 2021

430 pages
23.5 x 16 x 3 cm, 0.77 kg

'Over the last 30 years, Seldon has established himself as the court historian of Downing Street. Here he provides a history of the premiership and its antecedents and an analysis of the challenges, potentialities, and 'constraints' of an office 53 men and two women have held so far … the anecdotes about the prime ministers, their families, and their colleagues are engaging … Recommended.' D. R. Bisson, Choice Connect

Marking the third centenary of the office of Prime Minister, this book tells its extraordinary story, explaining how and why it has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history. Sir Anthony Seldon, historian of Number 10 Downing Street, explores the lives and careers, loves and scandals, successes and failures, of all our great Prime Ministers. From Robert Walpole and William Pitt the Younger, to Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, Seldon discusses which of our Prime Ministers have been most effective and why. He reveals the changing relationship between the Monarchy and the office of the Prime Minister in intimate detail, describing how the increasing power of the Prime Minister in becoming leader of Britain coincided with the steadily falling influence of the Monarchy. This book celebrates the humanity and frailty, work and achievement, of these 55 remarkable individuals, who averted revolution and civil war, leading the country through times of peace, crisis and war.

Preface
1. The Bookend Prime Ministers: Walpole and Johnson
2. A Country Transformed, 1721–2021
3. The Liminal Premiership: From the Saxons to 1806
4. The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2021
5. The Powers of the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
6. The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2021
7. The Falling Power of the Monarchy, 1660–2021
8. The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2021
9. The Rise, and Rise of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2021
10. The Impossible Office: The Prime Minister by 2021.

Subject Areas: Political leaders & leadership [JPHL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]