Making Aristocracy Work: The Peerage and the Political System in Britain, 1884-1914

Making Aristocracy Work explores the political role and activities of the peerage, both inside and outside Parliament, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Adonis examines the House of Lords and its practices during this period, and offers a new interpretation of the constitutional crisis of 1909-1911. He reassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Lords, questioning its effectiveness as a revising chamber, but at the same time clearly demonstrating the way it functioned in terms of constitutional tradition. He also examines the non-parliamentary activities of the peerage: their roles in local government and the civil service, and their part in the governing of the empire.