Peace, War, and Party Politics examines the mid-Victorian Conservative Party’s significant but overlooked role in British foreign policy and in contemporary debate about Britain’s relations with Europe. The book considers the Conservatives’ response--in opposition and government--to the tumultuous era of Napoleon III, the Crimean war, and Italian unification. Within a clear chronological framework, it focuses on "high" politics, and offers a detailed account of the party’s foreign policy in government under its longest-serving but forgotten leader, the fourteenth Earl of Derby. It attaches equal significance to domestic politics, and incorporates a provocative new analysis of Disraeli’s role in internal tussles over policy, illuminating the roots of the power struggle he would later win against Derby’s son in the 1870s.

Preface * Introduction * Conservative Perspectives * Prelude to Power, 1850-52 * 1852. Foreign Affairs; Domestic Problems * Entente Cordiale * From Peace to War: Opposing Aberdeen, 1852-1855 * From War to Peace: Opposing Palmerston, 1855-1858 * Disraelian Undertones, 1858 * The Italian Question * European War; Conservative Struggle * The Politics of Conservative Foreign Policy