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Ratings: ★★★★☆(4.4/5)
Genre: Political History / British History / Biography / Political Science

Book Review:
The Definitive Story of Britain's Most Successful Political Party
Robin Harris's ''The Conservatives: A History'' is a masterful achievement. To write a single-volume history of a political party that has dominated British politics for over two hundred years is a daunting task, but Harris has succeeded brilliantly, producing a book that is both scholarly and highly readable, comprehensive and concise.

Harris is the perfect guide. A historian by training and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, he has an insider's knowledge of the party's recent history and a scholar's understanding of its deeper roots. He takes the reader on a journey from the party's birth in the late 18th century as a response to the French Revolution, through its 19th-century evolution under the tutelage of Peel and Disraeli, to its 20th-century dominance under figures like Churchill, Macmillan, and Thatcher.

The book is filled with vivid portraits of the key personalities—the towering giants, the flawed geniuses, the also-rans—who shaped the party's destiny. Harris is particularly good on Thatcher, whom he served, offering insights that only an insider could provide. But he is equally adept at bringing earlier figures to life, from the pragmatic Peel to the romantic Disraeli.

What makes this book so compelling is Harris's ability to place the party's story within the broader context of British history. He shows how the Conservatives have both shaped and been shaped by the great events of the last two centuries: the Industrial Revolution, the rise of democracy, two world wars, the decline of empire, and the birth of the European Union.

The Times called it ''highly readable,'' and Robin Harris himself (a different Robin Harris, the novelist) praised it as ''a marvel of concision, lucidity and scholarship.'' ''The Conservatives: A History'' is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not just the history of a political party, but the history of modern Britain itself. It is a superb work of political history.