The Rage of Party

Today's party politics absorbs us. When did British party politics begin and how? George Owers's book provides a compelling analysis, brilliantly interweaving vivid vignettes into a masterly narrative

We tend to think of our current age as uniquely fractious but as George Owers shows in his engrossing new book, it is a kindergarten compared to the "Rage of Party'' this country experienced in the late seventeen and early eighteenth centuries. The story he tells so vividly has it all: political divisions, religious strife, immigration controversies, fake news, arguments over foreign policy, Anglo-Scottish tensions - polarisation all round!

This book is a delight. Written with vivacity and veracity it sheds light on the miracle of English party politics

A brilliant, absorbing, rollicking read. George Owers captures all the intrigue and idealism, as well as the loucheness and libertinism of the age of Queen Anne - when modern Britain was born and the literary and political worlds were consumed by sulphurous rivalries that still burn today

This is a lucid and exciting account of high and low politics in the crucial years of Whig and Tory battles following the Glorious Revolution, when Great Britain was created, and a new world of money, war and empire dawned. George Owers grippingly recounts the culture wars, paranoia, self-seeking and skulduggery that are "both recognisable and strange". Recognizable because "we are all still, in our heart of hearts, either Whig or Tory", and we are still grappling with their legacy

A highly readable account of the beginnings of the party system in Britain, with insights that are relevant for understanding of politics in any era. George Owers's vivid recreation of the conflict of Whigs and Tories illuminates what was a crucial period in the rise of Britain as a major European and global power

Vibrant . . . riveting . . . a work that will enthuse readers familiar with the period and captivate those who come to it anew

George Owers' tremendously entertaining new book is an unabashedly narrative account of the twists and turns of Whig and Tory through a period of immense turmoil . . . It makes for a heady cocktail of policy and personality. Owers' enthusiasm for the period and its characters is palpable

A delicious and fascinating book for those who love politics in the raw. George Owers details the plots, the intrigue, the ambition, the deception and the corruption from the early years of our two-party system - the Whigs against Tories, plus numerous warring factions. The Rage of Party also involves an extraordinary cast of colourful and eccentric characters - in an era when leaders who failed could still face the gallows!

The real joy of this tremendous book lies less in his thesis, persuasive as it is, than in the glee and vigour with which he tells his story. From the first page I found myself absorbed into a world of clubs and coffee houses, claret-quaffing squires and port-swilling financiers, seething crowds and shrieking preachers. And as you can tell, I absolutely loved it

The most exciting publishing event of the year!

This is Owers's first book, yet it's accomplished, funny, and does a clever job of implying comparison with the present without being obvious

Owers writes with wit and biff; he's not an academic historian so doesn't disappear into obscure debates or suffer from citation-itis . . . The book brims with the era's savage invective, conspiracy theories, sectarianism, religious mania, xenophobia and money-grubbing

[This is a] a period which most historians treat as too fiddly for a general audience; but in Owers's hands it gets such a spirited retelling that even Hogarth and Swift would have approved . . . There could be no better time for a detailed and ambitious history of that period - especially one which is so entertaining

A magnificent account of England three centuries ago