William Pitt, the Younger Hardcover - 1933

Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc, 1933. Presumed first U.S. edition/first printing. Hardcover. Good. No dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. Cover has some wear and soiling.. vi, [4], 347, [1] p.; 22 cm. Index. Philip Whitwell Wilson (1875 1956) was a British Liberal politician, writer and journalist. At the 1906 general election, he was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament for St Pancras South, winning the seat from the Liberal Unionists by the slender margin of 61 votes. The Liberal Unionists regained the seat at the January 1910 general election and Wilson switched to the Westmorland seat of Appleby, which he contested unsuccessfully at the December 1910 general election, finishing second. In 1910 he became the parliamentary correspondent for the Daily News, a position he held for the next twelve years. He was also the American correspondent for the Daily News. He wrote a number of religious books. He was a supporter of the Settlement Movement, which brought together his religious and political ideas." From Wikipedia: "William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 23 January 1806) was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24. He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also the Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout his premiership, and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from August 1792. He is known as "the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who had previously served as Prime Minister. The younger Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of George III, was dominated by major events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often referred to as a Tory, or "new Tory", called himself an "independent Whig" and was generally opposed to the development of a strict partisan political system. He is best known for leading Britain in the great wars against France and Napoleon. Pitt was an outstanding administrator who worked for efficiency and reform, bringing in a new generation of outstanding administrators. He raised taxes to pay for the great war against France, and cracked down on radicalism. To meet the threat of Irish support for France, he engineered the Acts of Union 1800 and tried (but failed) to get Catholic Emancipation as part of the Union. Pitt created the "new Toryism", which revived the Tory Party and enabled it to stay in power for the next quarter-century. Historian Asa Briggs points out that his personality did not endear itself to the British mind, for Pitt was too solitary, too colourless, and too often exuded superiority. His greatness came in the war with France, with the adversary setting the pace. Pitt reacted to become what Lord Minto called "the Atlas of our reeling globe". His integrity and industry and his role as defender of the threatened nation allowed him to inspire and access all the national reserves of strength. William Wilberforce said that, "For personal purity, disinterestedness and love of this country, I have never known his equal." Historian Charles Petrie concludes that he was one of the greatest prime ministers "if on no other ground than that he enabled the country to pass from the old order to the new without any violent upheaval....He understood the new Britain." For this he is ranked highly amongst British Prime Ministers."