Rational Choice and British Politics

Iain McLean, Professor of Politics, Nuffield College, Oxford University

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Irish Potatoes and British Politics: Peel, Wellington and the Repeal of the Corn Laws ; 3. Dishing the Whigs: Disraeli, Salisbury, and the relaunching of the Tory Party 1846-86 ; 4. The great Victorian realignment ; 5. The failure of imperialism: Joseph Chamberlain and Enoch Powell ; 6. Lloyd George: supreme tactician and ambitious strategist ; 7. The patriot game: rhetoric and heresthetic in the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations of 1921 ; 8. 'There is no alternative': Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair ; 9. Conclusion

McLean's research is excellent, his writing is polished and witty, and his cases are well selected to cover some of the truly fascinating moments of British politics ... From a scholarly perspective, there are some novel and interesting parts to McLean's work.