The Strange Death of Tory England
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
 The book begins with the Conservative leadership contest of 1963, following the resignation of Harold Macmillan, which turned into a fight between Iain Macleod, the modernizing chairman of the party, and the Earl of Home, the aristocratic dark horse. Home won, disclaimed his peerage, became Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and was elected to the House of Commons at a hastily-arranged by-election. Wheatcroft depicts this contest as a clash between supporters of "the virtues of an hereditary governing class" and those of "worth proved by ability". Next comes a history of the Tory party from its 17th-century beginnings at the time of the Restoration, followed by an account of the Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath years and Britain's trials and tribulations of the 1970s, culminating in the election of Margaret Thatcher's first government in 1979. Within a few years, while holding onto power, the Conservative Party began to split and to fall apart. Wheatcroft seeks to explain this decline, offering factors long discussed by commentators: internal splits over Britain's place in Europe, political sleaze and a fundamental lack of ideology, and a growing desire in the country for change after eighteen years of Conservative rule, coinciding with Tony Blair's "brilliant cynical sincerity".