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Sir Robert Walpole: The Making of a Statesman
A re-assessment of Sir Robert Walpole's life and work has long been needed. Dr. Plumb's biography is the first fully documented study since Archdeacon Coxe's Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole which appeared more than an a century and a half ago.
In the interval much new manuscript material has become available which has radically altered our knowledge and understanding of the turbulent and exciting politics of the Augustan age. Among these sources are the Walpole papers in the possession of the Marquess of Cholmondeley, which Dr. Plumb has been able to use without restriction and to great advantage in dealing with Walpole's early career.
This is the subject of the first volume, which begins with Walpole's entrance into politics as a debt-encumbered Norfolk squire and ends with his emergence from the South Sea Bubble as the King's first minister and as one of the richest as well as most powerful men in the land. Dr. Plumb presents him against the background of his age with his virtues as well as his vices brilliantly demonstrated in action, his achievements and shortcomings in the great struggle for power analyzed with remarkable insight and judgment, and many misconceptions removed.
It is in every respect an outstanding character study of the man who dominated the political scene of the first half of the eighteenth century; alike in its scholarship and its realism it is by far he most authoritative that has yet been written.
In the interval much new manuscript material has become available which has radically altered our knowledge and understanding of the turbulent and exciting politics of the Augustan age. Among these sources are the Walpole papers in the possession of the Marquess of Cholmondeley, which Dr. Plumb has been able to use without restriction and to great advantage in dealing with Walpole's early career.
This is the subject of the first volume, which begins with Walpole's entrance into politics as a debt-encumbered Norfolk squire and ends with his emergence from the South Sea Bubble as the King's first minister and as one of the richest as well as most powerful men in the land. Dr. Plumb presents him against the background of his age with his virtues as well as his vices brilliantly demonstrated in action, his achievements and shortcomings in the great struggle for power analyzed with remarkable insight and judgment, and many misconceptions removed.
It is in every respect an outstanding character study of the man who dominated the political scene of the first half of the eighteenth century; alike in its scholarship and its realism it is by far he most authoritative that has yet been written.
- GenresHistory
407 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
J.H. Plumb
62 books12 followersSir John (Jack) Harold Plumb FBA (20 August 1911 – 21 October 2001) was a British historian, known for his books on British 18th-century history.
During the Second World War, Plumb worked in the codebreaking department of the Foreign Office at Bletchley Park, Hut 8 and Hut 4, later Block B. He headed a section working on a German Navy hand cipher, Reservehandverfahren.
During the Second World War, Plumb worked in the codebreaking department of the Foreign Office at Bletchley Park, Hut 8 and Hut 4, later Block B. He headed a section working on a German Navy hand cipher, Reservehandverfahren.
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