‘Events, dear boy, events’: intriguing case studies in British political history

When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what was the greatest challenge for a statesperson, his reply was reputedly: ‘Events, dear boy, events’. He was probably thinking of the kind of vagaries that intrude from elsewhere, but there have been times in British political history when ‘events’ have centred on the politicians themselves. This course explores several such stories - including the murder of a Prime Minister, the abuse of patronage by another, and the banning of an MP from the House of Commons - to explain how they happened and to consider their broader impact on the government, politics and culture of their time.