The Impossible Office?
The History of the British Prime Minister - Revised and Updated

Over 300 years, fifty-seven individuals have held the office of British Prime Minister – who have been the best and worst?

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

9781009429771, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 March 2024

567 pages
19.6 x 12.9 x 3.1 cm, 0.59 kg

'A fascinating review of the role of the prime minister and those who have filled it … how did they change the role, and how did it change them and the country.' Jacqui Smith, Former Home Secretary

A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. The recent political chaos enfolding Downing Street provides the framing for the extraordinary story of the office of Prime Minister, and how and why it has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history. Sir Anthony Seldon, historian of Number 10, explores the lives and careers, crises and scandals, and successes and failures of our great Prime Ministers from Robert Walpole to Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher, up to the recent churn of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Seldon discusses which of our PMs have been most effective and why, as well as probing the changing relationship between the Monarchy and the Prime Minister in intimate detail. A celebration of the humanity, frailty, work and achievements of 57 remarkable individuals who averted revolution and civil war, leading the country through times of peace, crisis and war.

Preface
Note on the revised edition
1. The 300th Anniversary Bookend Prime Ministers: Walpole and Johnson
2. A Country Transformed, 1721–2024
3. The Liminal Premiership: From the Saxons to 1806
4. The Transformational Prime Ministers, 1806–2024
5. The Powers and Resources of the Prime Minister, 1721–2024
6. The Constraints on the Prime Minister, 1721–2024
7. The Eclipse of the Monarchy, 1660–2024
8. The Rise and Fall of the Foreign Secretary, 1782–2024
9. The Rise, and Rise, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1660–2024
10. The Impossible Office? The Prime Minister by 2024.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]