A Short History of the Liberal Party: The Road Back to Power

`The great strength of Chris Cook's party history is that it is a work of reference and record. Dr Cook provides a highly readable narrative... Those who need a reliable single volume history of the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats from 1900 onwards should have this tome on their shelves.'---Michael Meadowcroft, Liberal historian and MP for Leeds West, 1983-87

`First published in 1976, Chris Cook's A Short History of the Liberal Party remains a first point of reference for students of the modern party. This seventh edition brings the story up to date, charting a clear and perceptive course through the turbulent leaderships of Kennedy, Campbell and Clegg to the party's triumphal return to government following the General Election of 2010.'---David Dutton, Ramsay Muir Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Liverpool, UK

The Liberal Democrats have languished in the political shadows for a generation. With the advent of the 2010 television debates, they have returned once more to the spotlight. Cleggmania, `I Agree With Nick' and talk of the `Kingmaker' dominated coverage of the General Election of 2010. At the Polls, the electorate delivered a Hung Parliament and placed the Party back in Government, in coalition with the Conservatives.

Chris Cook lifts the lid on the `third Party'. Providing an indispensable account of their progress over the last century, he charts the Party's journey from the historic landslide victory of 1906, via their descent into divisions and decline in the interwar years, to in-depth analysis of the 2010 election. He asks, what of their future? Will the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition divide the party? And what are the electoral prospects for the party?

Chris Cook was educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford, UK. He has been director of successive surveys by the Modern Archives Unit at the London School of Economics, as well as Head of History at what is now London Metropolitan University. His many previous publications for Macmillan include the six-volume Sources in British Political History, 1900-51. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also editor of the best-selling Pears' Cyclopaedia. He has recently completed a new edition of The Slump: Britain in the Great Depression (with John Stevenson).