John Charmley has written an entertaining but fair account of one of the principal forces in modern British political history, illuminated throughout by a concentration upon the men, and the woman, who charted the party through a century of warfare and welfare. The second edition of this successful text is thoroughly updated to take into account the latest scholarship, and now has an earlier starting date to make sense of the importance of the Home Rule issue in defining late nineteenth-century Toryism. Charmley takes the story through the recent "wilderness years" following the 1997 election fiasco. - Publisher.;The conservative tradition -- Stanley and the protectionists -- Derby's conservatives -- Disraeli on top -- Balfour in trouble -- The unknown Bonar law -- Scalped by Baldwin -- Chamberlain in charge -- Churchill's consensus -- The new model Tory party? -- A conservative consensus? -- Decline and fall -- From Heath to Thatcher -- The Iron Lady -- High tide and after -- After the ball was over -- No direction home?