Castlereagh

John Bew teaches History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department at King's College London. He was the winner of the 2015 Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding achievement in Politics and International Studies and previously held the Henry Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. John is a contributing writer at the New Statesman and the author of five books, including the critically-acclaimed Realpolitik: A History and Castlereagh. He was born in Belfast, educated at Cambridge, and lives in Wimbledon, London.

• Preface and Acknowledgements. Maps. Prologue. PART I - ENLIGHTENMENT AND APOSTASY: Ireland's Robespierre; New Light; The Whig World; English Head, Irish Heart; Caesar in Ireland? The Reforming Giant and the Limits of Reason; Insular Dignity and Abstracted Freedom; Ragamuffins into Soldiers; A Romping Piece of Flesh; Pitt-ized with a Vengeance; Voltaire's Ideal Monster; Political Delinquency; The Wind and the Weather; Pitt's Henchman; A Lavaterian Eye; Erin's Death; Ireland Extinguished; The Mists that Overhang the Union. PART II - THE ENGLISH MINISTER: RISE, FALL AND REDEMPTION, 1801-1814: A Millstone about the Neck of Britain; A Clog Hung About a Dog's Neck; The Protege; The Return to War; England's Trouble, Ireland's Opportunity; Winding the Family Clock; Pitt's Heir? Pitt's Shadow; Two Irishmen in London; The Continental Foothold; Britannia Sickens; Unwilling to Give Up a Hero; The New Front; Weak Friends and Perfidious Enemies; Lord Castaway; London Grows Thin; Private Honour; Independent Patriot; The Knight of Old Returns; In Search of the Sixth Coalition; One Cause or Nothing; On the Rhine; Is it Peace? Paris at Last. PART III - FIRST AMONG EQUALS: Peace in Paris; The Gilded Age; Pleasure Bent in Vienna; The Congress; John Bull Fights Best, When He is Not Tied; Bringing Back the World to Peaceful Habits; In Defence of the Allies; Back to the Bustle; Enough to Destroy the Health of Hercules; An Entire Fearlessness; Like Wretches in a Slave-Ship; Meeting Murder; With Pistols in His Breeches; John Bull's Compass; Swellfoot the Tyrant; All We Ask of Our Allies; A Mixture of Warp and Woof; Mont Blanc Goes On; The Malaprop Cicero; The Cup Overflows; So He Has Cut His Throat. Conclusion - Never a Teacher of Men. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

John Bew has some heavy lifting to do in this consciously revisionist take. It is a great testament to his skills as a scholar and writer that he manages to do so with such aplomb . . . stellar