Benjamin Disraeli & William Gladstone Edward Heath & Margaret Thatcher Gordon Brown & Tony Blair
- personal rivalry is the very stuff of politics. The causes & controversies the parties & technology may have changed over time but political conflict is still dramatised by the competition of ambitious individuals for the highest offices. Over the past two hundred years the size of the electorate has grown enormously & the means of reaching it transformed out of all recognition but human nature itself hasnt changed. In his thought-provoking book John Campbell considers eight pairs of rivals & shows how their antagonism which often evolved into outright loathing has determined the course of political conflict. In each of his cases studies
- Fox & Pitt Castlereagh & Canning Gladstone & Disraeli Asquith & Lloyd George Bevan & Gaitskell Macmillan & Butler Heath & Thatcher Brown & Blair
- he combines a vivid narrative with an authoritative assessment of the historical legacy that reveals how ideology is inextricably entwined with personality.