Benjamin Disraeli

22 Sep, 2024 940 History of Europe

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and, for long periods, as leader of the opposition. Born a Jew, he was only permitted to enter Parliament as his father had him baptised into the Church of England when he was twelve. Disraeli was a gifted orator and, outside Parliament, he shared his views widely through several popular novels including Sybil or The Two Nations, which was to inspire the idea of One Nation Conservatism. He became close to Queen Victoria and she mourned his death with a primrose wreath, an event marked for years after by annual processions celebrating his life in politics.

Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Lawrence Goldman 11 episodes
    Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter's College, University of Oxford
  • Emily Jones No other episodes
    Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester
  • Daisy Hay No other episodes
    Professor of English Literature and Life Writing at the University of Exeter

Reading list

  • Disraeli
    Robert Blake (Faber & Faber, 2010) Google Books →
  • Disraeli and the Bible
    M. Dent ( 2024)
  • Sybil; or, The Two Nations
    Benjamin Disraeli (ed. N. Shrimpton) (Oxford University Press, 2017) Google Books →
  • Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance
    Daisy Hay (Chatto & Windus, 2015) Google Books →
  • Disraeli: or, The Two Lives
    Douglas Hurd and Edward Young (W&N, 2014) Google Books →
  • Impressions of Disraeli: Mythmaking and the History of One Nation Conservatism, 1881-1940
    Emily Jones ( 2023)
  • The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli
    William Kuhn (Simon & Schuster, 2007) Google Books →
  • Disraeli: The Romance of Politics
    Robert O'Kell (University of Toronto Press, 2013) Google Books →
  • Disraeli and England
    J.P. Parry ( 2000)
  • Disraeli, the East and Religion: Tancred in Context
    J.P. Parry ( 2017)
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
    Cecil Roth (New York Philosophical library, 1952) Google Books →
  • Disraelian Conservatism and Social Reform
    Paul Smith (Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1967) Google Books →
  • Disraeli
    John Vincent (Oxford University Press, 1990) Google Books →
  • Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain
    P.J. Waller (ed.) (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1987)

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Programme ID: m0022z8v

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022z8v

Auto-category: 941.081 (British history 1837-1901)