About the Book

This impressive study of the life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was first published in 1913 when it achieved instant recognition as a brilliant appraisal of Pitt's career. It is a book with many outstanding merits to commend it to students of eighteenth century English history.

Content and Features

Based on thorough and extensive researches, it traces Pitt's career from his election as a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum in 1735 and gives a well balanced account of his part in home and foreign politics and colonial affairs during the next 30 years. The book contains many good maps and an excellent index, and a very valuable appendix gives a list of all Pitt's extant speeches, with references to where reports of them may be found.

Overall Significance

These two substantial volumes are invaluable as a portrait of one of the most outstanding historical figures of the eighteenth century.