'The writing is clear and historically sound, covering both Peel's career and the historiography of his reputation, and should appeal to a wide readership'-Professor David McLean, King's College, University of London<BR><BR>Sir Robert Peel û paragon or pariah? Peel was the greatest statesman and political leader of mid-Victorian Britain; a titan of Conservative politics, whose legacy has inspired generations in his party and in British political life.<BR><BR>In a career spanning forty years he held the greatest offices of state, including Chief Secretary for Ireland, Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and was twice Prime Minister. He was a tireless and peerless reformer, who gave political rights to Catholics û through Catholic Emancipation û liberalised and reformed the criminal law, the office of magistrate and the jury system, improved prisons and founded the Metropolitan Police. He introduced 'free trade' budgets, resolved crises in British banking and developed the railways û all of which provided the financial and mechanical sinews of Britain as a burgeoning economic superpower. He was the first acknowledged leader of the Conservative Party and the Founder of Modern Conservatism.<BR><BR>Yet Peel's seemingly peerless reputation has never been secure. Repeal of the Corn Laws split his party; his Teelite' supporters joined the Liberals and the Conservatives remained in opposition for thirty years. His historical legacy is also troubled: was he a flexible and pragmatic Conservative moderniser or a rigid evangelistic apostle of Gladstonian free-trade liberalism, and not really a Conservative?<BR><BR>Richard A. Gaunt draws on a huge archive of state papers, contemporary writings including Peel's own memoirs, and the latest historiography to unwrap the Peel enigma. He paints a convincing picture of Peel as an exponent of effective government in the modern industrial state and a calculating practitioner, supremely self-confident, who dominated both his Party and the House of Commons. Gaunt's revisionist life of Peel will be essential reading for students and general readers interested in Conservative and mid-Victorian political history and historical biography.