Pitt the Younger: A Life - Hardcover

Turner, Michael J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1852853778 ISBN 13: 9781852853778

Publisher: Hambledon Pr, 2003

Synopsis

William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was the youngest ever Prime Minister, and the second longest-serving one. Dominant in British politics for over twenty years, at a critical time in the his-tory of Britain, Europe and the world, he presided over the reforms that set up modern government in Britain (including the introduction of income tax). He also orchestrated Britain's response in the early stages of the war against the French Revolution and Napoleon, living to see British command of the sea established for over a hundred years at the battle of Trafalgar.

Pitt the Younger is the story of an extraordinary career. The son of Britain’s war leader in the Seven Years War, William Pitt the Younger was a born politician who dedicated his life to the exercise of power. His superb oratory, personal probity, and deep understanding of politics enabled him to overcome a lack of bonhomie and a chaotic private life. Michael Turner shows what Pitt achieved and how he achieved it, providing a clear and readable assessment of Pitt’s career.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael J. Turner is the author of Independent Radicalism in Early Victorian Britain, Pitt the Younger and British Politics in the Age of Reform. He is Roy Carroll Distinguished Professor of British History at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

From Publishers Weekly:

Aged 24 when he took office, William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) was the youngest prime minister in British history and served in that position longer than anyone except Robert Walpole. As Turner (British Politics in the Age of Reform) stresses, Pitt inherited a legacy of political leadership. His father, William Pitt the Elder, was Britain's leader during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). Turner depicts a young man who, like his father, fashioned himself as a selfless patriot devoted to the public good. Named prime minister in 1783 by King George III, Pitt moved immediately to reform the British government, making it more efficient and less prone to corruption. Turner emphasizes that Pitt was foremost a pragmatist, not an idealist-when Pitt saw that more radical reforms, such as electoral reform and abolition of the slave trade, met with strong opposition, he blithely moved on to other issues. When the French Revolution triggered an increase in revolutionary fervor in Britain, Pitt put reform on hold and firmly repressed domestic radicalism. Turner strongly defends Pitt against the charge (made by both contemporary opponents and later by historians) that he organized an unconstitutional "reign of terror" against British radicals. Pitt's "security measures" were both limited and constitutional, Turner argues. He offers a straightforward, workmanlike, if at times colorless, account of how Pitt gained, and then used, political power. As Turner makes abundantly clear, Pitt had virtually no private life; he never married and had few social attachments. Thus, Pitt never quite comes across as a three-dimensional human being.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hambledon Pr
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1852853778
• ISBN 13: 9781852853778
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320