Parliament: The Biography (Volume I - Ancestral Voices)

The history of Parliament is the history of the United Kingdom itself. It has a cast of thousands. Some were ambitious, visionary and altruistic. Others were hot-headed, violent and self-serving. Few were unambiguously noble. Yet their rowdy confrontations, their campaigning zeal and their unstable alliances framed our nation.This first of two volumes takes us on a 500-year journey from Parliament's earliest days in the thirteenth century through the turbulent years of the Wars of the Roses and the upheavals of the Civil Wars, and up to 1801, when Parliament - and the United Kingdom, embracing Scotland and Ireland - emerged in a modern form.Chris Bryant tells this epic tale through the lives of the myriad MPs, lords and bishops who passed through Parliament. It is the vivid, colourful biography of a cast of characters whose passions and obsessions, strengths and weaknesses laid the foundations of modern democracy.

Product details

• Authors: Chris Bryant
• Publisher: BLACK SWAN
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.04.2015
• EAN: 9780552779951
• ISBN: 978-0-552-77995-1
• No. of pages: 592
• Dimensions: 126 mm x 196 mm x 37 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political system; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy, HISTORY / Europe / Ireland, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, United Kingdom, Great Britain, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, 15th century, c 1400 to c 1499, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, Constitution: government & the state, Constitution: government and the state, Parliamentary and legislative practice, Parliamentary & Legislative Practice