Disraeli: A Brief Life

By Paul Smith

Book Overview

In this fresh account of Benjamin Disraeli's life, Paul Smith looks at his unique character as a fusion of Jewishness and Anglicanism, outsider and insider, nationalist and European, Romantic and Tory; and shows how this formed his appeal as an original and a card, the most piquant joker in the pack, a faintly raffish outsider who scaled the highest peaks of public life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521669901
• ISBN13: 9780521669900
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Too Brief Biography

Paul Smith attempts the impossible - to write a brief life - of the complex, remarkable and enigmatic Jewish politician and author Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Smith almost pulls it off but another 50 or so pages would have given him much more scope to portray Disraeli's major contributions to the politics of identity, social and political reform and the recognition of the inevitability of working class emancipation. Smith allows his fascination with Dizzy's Jewishness and "outsider" status to overwhelm the other facets of his character and beliefs. Part of Dizzy's greatness as a politician was the ability to simultaneously portray himself as the ultimate outsider and the loyal, patriotic "insider." Until the election of Ramsey MacDonald as the first Labour Prime Minister in the 1920s, Disraeli stands alone as the most unlikely Prime Minister Britain ever had. Smith's book includes some good quotes from commentators such as Gladstone and Michael Foot. A book deserving a fuller treatment in its second edition but still a very useful introduction to its subject for young students of 19th century history.