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Asquith
Asquith is one of the most crucial and controversial of all modern Prime Ministers. He was opposed with a bitterness and a violence that English politicians have not subsequently known. Yet he enjoyed eight and a half years of unbroken power, a period unequalled since Lord Liverpool in the 1820's. His Government was perhaps the most brilliant in our history: Churchill and Lloyd George, Haldane and Morley, Rufus Isaacs and John Simon, Augustine Birrell and Edward Grey were amongst its members. Asquith held them all together with an easy authority. Calm, unruffled, dignified he seemed politically indestructable. Yet his fall in December 1916 was sudden and final. A fantastic portrait by a master politcal biographer.
572 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
Roy Jenkins
76 books36 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM PC was a Welsh politician. Once prominent as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) and government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first (and so far only) British President of the European Commission (1977-81) and one of the four principal founders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. He was also a distinguished writer, especially of biographies.
-Wikipedia
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM PC was a Welsh politician. Once prominent as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) and government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first (and so far only) British President of the European Commission (1977-81) and one of the four principal founders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. He was also a distinguished writer, especially of biographies.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 30, 2025
The Last of the Romans
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith is a name most people probably know, but a character and personality they are likely to know little about. He was the last prime minister of a wholly liberal government and the prime minster who took the United Kingdom and its Empire to war in 1914. He was prime minster for eight and a half years from 1908 to 1916 when he was brought down. Roy Jenkins has delivered two masterpieces of political biography in his Churchill and Gladstone books. Both which I highly recommend. However, here Asquith just doesn’t quite hit the mark in the same way. The text is dry, laborious and so unlike Jenkins’ other works.
Asquith is still important and his period in history is extremely interesting. His premiership was dominated by the Home Rule debate in Ireland, an impossible task which he did not solve, with in early 1914, agreeing that Home Rule was needed but it would not be debated again until the following year. This was of course not Asquith’s fault, but the extremely volatile and complicated situation itself. Another heavy hitting subject was the question of women’s suffrage which was at the forefront of Edwardian politics. An idea alien to us today that women didn’t have the vote, again this was a hot topic at the time, which like Home Rule put extreme pressure on the PM and his cabinet. What I found surprising was that Asquith didn’t support giving women the vote, even though the majority of his political allies did. Asquith also dealt with the House of Lords by passing the Parliament Act 1911 which reduced its power to veto bills passed by the House of Commons, in such contributed to its already steps decline.
What he will be remembered most for, however is how he lead the country into war in 1914. A huge turning point in history, Britain was changed forever with the move. Asquith is of course not to blame for the First World War, but he was at the centre of it for the first two years. Like so many others, the war was his undoing. Military failures like those of the Gallipoli campaign and the shell shortage scandal forced Asquith to form a coalition government. However this wasn’t enough to save him. The indefatigable campaign from the propaganda master and press baron Lord Northcliffe brought Asquith down. With it, the last of the old world order. The public was given David Lloyd George, and two more years of war.
Unfortunately this social, intelligent family man hasn’t been given justice here. This surprises me from a talented author. But this was written 40 years before his Churchill. The book is also purely political, little is given on his home life or how he was as a husband or father, other than he didn’t really get on with his oldest son Raymond who was unfortunately killed at the front in 1916. Jenkins’ expert knowledge of British political history and parliamentary affairs does shine through, though which for the die hards is worth the read. However, a revisit to Asquith is needed and would be welcomed by me.
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith is a name most people probably know, but a character and personality they are likely to know little about. He was the last prime minister of a wholly liberal government and the prime minster who took the United Kingdom and its Empire to war in 1914. He was prime minster for eight and a half years from 1908 to 1916 when he was brought down. Roy Jenkins has delivered two masterpieces of political biography in his Churchill and Gladstone books. Both which I highly recommend. However, here Asquith just doesn’t quite hit the mark in the same way. The text is dry, laborious and so unlike Jenkins’ other works.
Asquith is still important and his period in history is extremely interesting. His premiership was dominated by the Home Rule debate in Ireland, an impossible task which he did not solve, with in early 1914, agreeing that Home Rule was needed but it would not be debated again until the following year. This was of course not Asquith’s fault, but the extremely volatile and complicated situation itself. Another heavy hitting subject was the question of women’s suffrage which was at the forefront of Edwardian politics. An idea alien to us today that women didn’t have the vote, again this was a hot topic at the time, which like Home Rule put extreme pressure on the PM and his cabinet. What I found surprising was that Asquith didn’t support giving women the vote, even though the majority of his political allies did. Asquith also dealt with the House of Lords by passing the Parliament Act 1911 which reduced its power to veto bills passed by the House of Commons, in such contributed to its already steps decline.
What he will be remembered most for, however is how he lead the country into war in 1914. A huge turning point in history, Britain was changed forever with the move. Asquith is of course not to blame for the First World War, but he was at the centre of it for the first two years. Like so many others, the war was his undoing. Military failures like those of the Gallipoli campaign and the shell shortage scandal forced Asquith to form a coalition government. However this wasn’t enough to save him. The indefatigable campaign from the propaganda master and press baron Lord Northcliffe brought Asquith down. With it, the last of the old world order. The public was given David Lloyd George, and two more years of war.
Unfortunately this social, intelligent family man hasn’t been given justice here. This surprises me from a talented author. But this was written 40 years before his Churchill. The book is also purely political, little is given on his home life or how he was as a husband or father, other than he didn’t really get on with his oldest son Raymond who was unfortunately killed at the front in 1916. Jenkins’ expert knowledge of British political history and parliamentary affairs does shine through, though which for the die hards is worth the read. However, a revisit to Asquith is needed and would be welcomed by me.
April 10, 2018
Interesting book about an interesting guy who, as Prime Minister, tried to establish Irish self governance without provoking Unionists, took the UK into WW1, and lingered long enough to see the end of a Liberal era. He introduced the UK’s first modern social welfare programme and opposed extending the vote to women.
December 29, 2015
Excellent..
December 25, 2019
Magisterial biography of the last Liberal Prime Minister
Solid and thoughtful, Jenkins records the rise and decline of a politician overwhelmed by change. Asquith"s fall signalled the demise of classic Liberalism: rarely has a career so comprehensively demonstrated that political careers end in failure. Jenkins does not really capture the enigma of the evaporation of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, leaving a view of an intelligent and pleasant man whose achievements remain shallow and his failure absolute
Solid and thoughtful, Jenkins records the rise and decline of a politician overwhelmed by change. Asquith"s fall signalled the demise of classic Liberalism: rarely has a career so comprehensively demonstrated that political careers end in failure. Jenkins does not really capture the enigma of the evaporation of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, leaving a view of an intelligent and pleasant man whose achievements remain shallow and his failure absolute
February 10, 2019
Prime Minister Asquith occupies one of the chasms of world history: a man of a fading time, facing the problems of a new world. In Roy Jenkins's biography, the author traces the political career of Asquith from Liberal MP, member of Gladstone's cabinet, leader of the Liberal Party, and finally prime minister. During his tenure at 10 Downing Street, Asquith faces the momentous problems of Irish nationalism and Home Rule, the intransigence of the House of Lords, and the early years of World War One.
In some ways, Asquith has one foot very much in "modern" times, particularly in his progressive budget and fight against the veto power of the House of Lords. However, the man appears utterly Victorian in his sensibilities and style of leadership. Moreover, Asquith fails to see the horrors imposed by the war against the Central Powers, killing off the shining youth of the British nation and putting his country on the road to de-colonization and marginalization on the world stage.
Jenkins's biography is fine in relaying the facts and political to-and-fro, but lacks considerably in the department of understanding Asquith the man. Very little is written on Asquith's inner feelings, and even the First World War is treated as a backstage prop to the political maneuvering in London. The prose is clear and concise, though, and the facts dispensed fairly, if a bit too coolly.
In some ways, Asquith has one foot very much in "modern" times, particularly in his progressive budget and fight against the veto power of the House of Lords. However, the man appears utterly Victorian in his sensibilities and style of leadership. Moreover, Asquith fails to see the horrors imposed by the war against the Central Powers, killing off the shining youth of the British nation and putting his country on the road to de-colonization and marginalization on the world stage.
Jenkins's biography is fine in relaying the facts and political to-and-fro, but lacks considerably in the department of understanding Asquith the man. Very little is written on Asquith's inner feelings, and even the First World War is treated as a backstage prop to the political maneuvering in London. The prose is clear and concise, though, and the facts dispensed fairly, if a bit too coolly.
January 26, 2023
Herbert Henry Asquith was the first of two British Prime Ministers during World War One. He had the misfortune to be a) leading during the years when Germany was at her zenith of power; b) perceived to be too laid back for what the times called for (rather an unfair perception), and c) to be followed in office by a mendacious opportunist (Lloyd George).
September 9, 2022
Excellent biography. Poor Asquith, symbol of liberal Britain, got overshadowed by Lloyd George who in turn eventually got overshadowed by Churchill’s memoirs.
September 22, 2024
Fills in the gap between the deaths of the Victorian giants Gladstone and Disraeli and World War 1. Jenkins, himself a prominent English politician, is a very smooth biographer but on this one he gets bogged down in the machinations of Liberal party politics as the party begins to break up. It’s all a little too “inside baseball” and needs a wider point of view. Asquith is interesting as maybe the first non-elite prime minister: non descript family, scholarship boy, hard working lawyer who succeeds on his own. The weird world of Victorian male sexuality needs more explanation with his obsession (and obsessive letter writing) with Venetia Stanley.
May 5, 2009
May 2009 - taking everything ofc "currently reading" list that I actually stopped reading months ago - comments below still valid.
Next installment in the British Prime Ministers series of winter 2009 reading.
Still plugging away at this (not that anyone cares) - Asquith is an interesting and historically noteworthy character, whose descendants (by birth or marriage) include actress Helena Bonham-Carter and novelist Emma Tennant.
Next installment in the British Prime Ministers series of winter 2009 reading.
Still plugging away at this (not that anyone cares) - Asquith is an interesting and historically noteworthy character, whose descendants (by birth or marriage) include actress Helena Bonham-Carter and novelist Emma Tennant.
February 7, 2016
One of the better political biographies out there. It deals with Asquith being deposed in great detail. Asquith though now portrayed as a bumbling and incompetent leader was indeed an excellent peace-time leader; it is a shame his fruitful relationship with Lloyd George, the dissolution of which is covered in intense and suspenseful detail, needed to come to an end.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews