Walpole in Power [Hardcover]

Jeremy Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Robert Walpole was Britain's first Prime Minister and one of the great political figures of the eighteenth century. His years in power, 1721-42, saw the growth of unparalleled political stability and the gradual rise of the House of Commons as the focus of power. In the twenty years that he was Prime Minister Walpole was the chief architect of the Whig supremacy which laid the foundations for modern Britain. He secured the Hanoverian dynasty through his close relationship with George II and did his best to endear the population to their Germanic monarch. Although they were later to part with bitterness on both sides, there is no doubt that Walpole had achieved the seemingly impossible task of harmonising the interests of people, parliament and monarch in a way which became the model for all future British Prime Ministers. This new study of Walpole's years in power paints a lively picture of Hanoverian England and the world of politics and patronage. The important literary culture of Augustan England - Pope, Swift, Gray and Johnson - is also explored for its rich vein of political satire and commentary. The book ends with Walpole's fall from power in 1742 while Britain was at war with Spain and France, a war which Walpole opposed but which George II was determined to pursue for his own interests. Walpole's opposition to the war ended his career but bolstered George's image with his subjects as he led a victorious army of British, Hanoverian and Austrian troops in battle, the last British monarch to do so.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is a leading authority on the eighteenth century and his recent publications include War in the Eighteenth Century (Cassell Military) War: Past, Present and Future (Sutton) and Historical Atlas of Britain (Sutton).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075092523X
• ISBN-13: 978-0750925235
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,174,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Walpole the Hack, but book describes him well, August 27, 2011

By 

Joseph M. Hennessey (Weston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Walpole in Power (Hardcover)

I'm sorry to Jeremy Black for not giving him 5 *'s, but Robert Walpole as Black describes him was nothing but a manager and manipulator of Parliament and the various Kings George, that i could not bear granting the book 5 *'s. Plus, Black's book was long on weekly, monthly and yearly description of Walpole's activities, but short on in depth cultural analysis of this development in the English Constitution.

Granted, Walpole was the true first English Prime Minister; what profoundly did this mean? Surely it had to mean more than the maestro of governmental patronage?

I found, as yes, an American, it shocking that Black virtually never referred to Walpole's interest or non-interest, or interventions or non-interventions, in the bubbling movement toward independence in the colonies during his watch, which long anticipated in 1765, or certainly 1775. Surely this inattention altered what was once called the British Empire the most?

I found it interesting on p. 32 that Cardinal Fleury of France, succesor of Richlieu and Mazarin, pressed for Walpole to keep his job after the South Sea Bubble. On pp. 107-8, Black shows how Walpole was no fan of a free press.

On p. 120, Black quotes Walpole as having little religious faith, being a non-intellectual, and one who would laugh at religion. All this was during the time when Anglicanism was losing the 'battle' against Methodism, then Unitarianism. He dealt with church management in the same way he dealt with civil managment, just as a matter of who should be assigned where, to his benefit. Is it causational that this diminishment of Christian faith led to the sunset over the British Empire?

It was (is) a shame that Walpole, by his lack of thinking and inaction, allowed Anglicanism to slip into a vanilla mush, and that Jeremy Black seems not to have seen that, though "Walpole [was] in [micro-political] Power, that this was close to meaningless in the long run.