Rufus Isaacs was in his day the first commoner to rise to the rank of marquess since the Duke of Wellington. Born into a lively Jewish family, he left school aged 14, yet made his name as a brilliant QC before being elected to the Commons as a Liberal in 1904. Smeared during the Marconi scandal of 1913 he survived to be appointed Lord Chief Justice, and elevated to the peerage in 1914. He would go on to be Ambassador to the United States, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary. For this major work, first published in ...
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Rufus Isaacs was in his day the first commoner to rise to the rank of marquess since the Duke of Wellington. Born into a lively Jewish family, he left school aged 14, yet made his name as a brilliant QC before being elected to the Commons as a Liberal in 1904. Smeared during the Marconi scandal of 1913 he survived to be appointed Lord Chief Justice, and elevated to the peerage in 1914. He would go on to be Ambassador to the United States, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary. For this major work, first published in 1982, Denis Judd drew upon private papers in order to place Rufus Isaacs' complex career in perspective and so provide an overdue reassessment of one of the most outstanding public figures of the twentieth century. 'Excellent.' A.J.P. Taylor, Observer 'A lucid and revealing book' Geoffrey Moorhouse, Times 'The best biography [of Lord Reading] to have appeared so far.' Robert Blake, Evening Standard
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Seller's Description:
Used-Very Good. VG hardback in VG dust jacket. 1982 1st edition with BH&W illustrations; tightly bound in green cloth with silver lettering to spine. Dust jacket not price-clipped; evidence of spillage on inner surface of back panel (nowhere else affected). Slight yellowing to page fore-edges; otherwise, a clean, tidy copy.
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Seller's Description:
This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. Clean from markings. In good all round condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 750grams, ISBN: 029778014X.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in Very good jacket. x, 316, [2] pages Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. DJ has minor wear and soiling. Denis Judd was born in Northamptonshire in 1938. He won a State Scholarship to Oxford, where he took his first degree in Modern History at Magdalen College, going on to study for a Ph.D. at London University, on: 'A. J. Balfour and the evolution and problems of the British Empire 1874-1906. ' He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has been Head of History, and is now Professor Emeritus of Imperial and Commonwealth History, at the London Metropolitan University. In his research, writing and broadcasting he has specialized in the British Empire and Commonwealth, especially South Africa and India. He has also written extensively on British history, on aspects of the monarchy, and among his biographies is the authorized life of the children's author Alison Uttley. Rufus Isaacs was in his day the first commoner to rise to the rank of marquess since the Duke of Wellington. Born into a lively Jewish family, he left school aged 14, yet made his name as a brilliant QC before being elected to the Commons as a Liberal in 1904. Smeared during the Marconi scandal of 1913 he survived to be appointed Lord Chief Justice, and elevated to the peerage in 1914. He would go on to be Ambassador to the United States, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary. For this major work, Denis Judd drew upon private papers in order to place Rufus Isaacs' complex career in perspective and so provide an overdue reassessment of one of the most outstanding public figures of the twentieth century. Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC (10 October 1860-30 December 1935), known as The Earl of Reading from 1917 to 1926, was a British Liberal politician and judge, who served as Lord Chief Justice of England, [1] Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary, the last Liberal to hold that post. The second practicing Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel, who was also a member of H. H. Asquith's government), Isaacs was the first Jew to be Lord Chief Justice, and the first, and as yet, only British Jew to be raised to a marquessate. Rufus Isaacs was the first commoner to rise to the rank of marquess since the Duke of Wellington. Born into a lively Jewish family engaged in the London fruit trade, he went on to become a brilliant QC, Lord Chief Justice, Special Wartime Ambassador to the United States, Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary. A stalwart of the Liberal Party, he first won a Commons seat in 1904 and was soon a Cabinet Minister, trusted by Asquith, and at the same time very close to the controversial Lloyd George. His life abounded in paradox: leaving school at fourteen, he was later to hold his own with the best minds in international politics; a rebellious child, he came to personify the grave majesty of the law; once a ship's boy, he ruled over the Indian empire; 'hammered' as a stock jobber. he became a respected Liberal elder statesman; smeared during the Marconi scandal and subject to anti-semitic attack, he was promptly appointed Lord Chief Justice and raised to the peerage as Lord Reading. In this scholarly and engaging biography, written with the full co-operation of the present Marquess of Reading and based upon many private papers, Dr. Denis Judd has put Rufus Isaacs's complex and varied career in proper perspective and provides an overdue assessment of one of the most outstanding-and underrated-public figures of the twentieth century. This book has a good deal of new material: for example, on why Asquith shielded Isaacs during the Marconi controversy; on the part Reading took in helping to resolve the General Strike in 1926; and on his contribution, as an elder statesman, to the work of Ramsay MacDonald's National governments. Reading was the man who prosecuted the poisoner Seddon, who tried Sir Roger Casement for treason and who defended George V...