As the party that has won wars, reversed recessions and held prime ministerial power more times than any other, the Conservatives have played an undoubtedly crucial role in the shaping of contemporary British society. And yet, the leaders who have stood at its helm - from Sir Robert Peel to David Cameron, via Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher - have steered the party vessel with enormously varying degrees of success.;With the widening of the franchise, revolutionary changes to social values and the growing ubiquity of the media, the requirements, techniques and goals of Conservative leadership since the party's nineteenth-century factional breakaway have been forced to evolve almost beyond recognition - and not all its leaders have managed to keep up.;This comprehensive and enlightening book considers the attributes and achievements of each leader in the context of their respective time and diplomatic landscape, offering a compelling analytical framework by which they may be judged, detailed personal biographies from some of the country's foremost political critics, and exclusive interviews with former leaders themselves.; An indispensable contribution to the study of party leadership, British Conservative Leaders is the essential guide to understanding British political history and governance through the prism of those who created it.;Contributing authors include Matthew d'Ancona, Tim Bale, Stuart Ball, Jim Buller, John Campbell, John Charmley, Charles Clarke, Mark Davies, Patrick Diamond, David Dutton, Dr Mark Garnett, Richard A. Gaunt, William Hague, Angus Hawkins, Timothy Heppell, Andrew Holt, Michael Howard, Toby S. James, Nigel Keohane, Jo-Anne Nadler, T. G. Otte, Anne Perkins, Robert Saunders, Anthony Seldon, Andrew Taylor, D. R. Thorpe and Alan Wager.

A new memoir by Toby James Nunn, reveals personal stories of the faces behind the military uniforms as young men learn about the Army and about themselves during combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nunn presents both his own experience as an infantry squad leader and the experiences of the soldiers under his command. Northern Disclosure is about their exploits, but it is also a coming of age story. Soldiers mature quickly in a war zone, and it is not uncommon that an inner struggle ensues, pitting their natural humanity against an aggressiveness programmed by years of training. Nunn follows his unit's progress as their training moves from the U.S. to the desert sands of Kuwait before heading into Iraq for combat. Nunn's unit was the first to train and fight as a Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Northern Disclosure rides shotgun as Nunn and his soldiers take the Stryker vehicle into combat scenarios in Iraq. Readers will also be given a ground level perspective of the middle stages of the effort to reestablish the Iraqi nation. Nunn was one of the first leaders to face the challenge of training and establishing local security forces in Iraq while dealing with the cultural differences between his soldiers and the Iraqis they trained and fought with. Northern Disclosure is a military and human interest story that will appeal to readers who are interested in a true insider's account of the war in Iraq.