Gladstone Studies

Charting recent ‘turns’ in history, towards empathy and ethics, this paper proposes reading Mayhew as a writer. The entry point proposed is Mayhew's What to Teach and How to Teach It: So that the Child may become a Wise and Good Man (1842), a book that charts Mayhew's theories of literacy and language, and of voice and writing.     

Matthew's Gladstone

The Gladstone Diaries. Vol. XII. 1887–1891. Edited by H.C.G. Matthew. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994. Ixxxvii, 535 pp. ℒ65.00. ISBN 0198204639.
The Gladstone Diaries. Vol. XIII. 1892–1896. Edited by H.C.G. Matthew. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994. ix, 486 pp. ℒ65.00. ISBN 0198204647.
The Gladstone Diaries. Vol. XIV. Index. Edited by H.C.G. Matthew. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1994. xv, 862, pp. ℒ65.00. ISBN 0198204655.
Gladstone, 1875–1898. By H.C.G. Matthew. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1995. xi, 421 pp. ℒ25.00. ISBN 0198204051.     

Reading Beside the Lines: Marginalia,W.E. Gladstone,and the International History of the Bulgarian Horrors

This article explores the marginalia found in the personal volumes of William Ewart Gladstone in the context of the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–8). Diverging from previous narratives, which have lionised Gladstone for his apparently prophetic support for the independence of Christian subjects within the Ottoman Empire, this article argues that Gladstone read and understood little about modern South-Eastern European history, Bulgaria, or the Bulgarians before the publication of his influential political pamphlet, The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East. Gladstone's powerful interjection, based upon widespread, imagined categories of cultural understanding, directly influenced British foreign policy at a critical juncture with profound international consequences. Britain abandoned its traditional support of the Ottoman Empire - allowing Russia to wage a punitive war against its former ally - and instead supported the independence of the ‘Christian races’ of the Balkans along the budding principle of national self-determination. Gladstone's marginalia provide a unique linkage between studies of cultural languages of understanding, individual decision-making, the mechanisms of political power, and the construction of foreign policy. In certain cases, therefore, marginalia may help reveal the nexus between local histories of cultural production and major events in international history.     

'The Return of Ulysses': Gladstone, Liberalism and Late Victorian Politics

Gladstone, Whiggery and the Liberal Party, 1874–1886 . By T. A.Jenkins. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1988. vi, 328 pp. £32.50.
The Gladstonian Turn of Mind: Essays Presented to J. B. Conacher . Edited by Bruce L. Kinzer. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1985. xv, 294 pp. £35.00.
Gladstone, Home Rule and the Ulster Question, 1882–93 . By James Loughlin. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. 1986. 369 pp. No price given.
Parliamentary Politics and the Home Rule Crisis: The British House of Commons in 1886 . By W. C. Lubenow. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1988. vii, 389 pp. £37.50.
The Gladstone Diaries with Cabinet Minutes and Prime Ministerial Correspondence, Volume IX, January 1875-December 1880 . Edited by H. C. G. Matthew. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1986. xcvii, 714 pp. £55.00.
Parnell and the First Home Rule Episode, 1884–87 . By Alan O'Day. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. 1986. x, 314 pp. £25.00.