Though usually not ranked among the greatest prime ministers in British history, Arthur Balfour was nonetheless a very significant figure in many respects. The nephew of his predecessor as premier, the Marquess of Salisbury, Balfour was the last person to become prime minister largely as a result of his family connections. And while he led the Conservative Party to three successive electoral defeats, he nonetheless guided it through a key period in ts ideological development, one that addressed issues that had long been deferred by Salisbury and other Conservative leaders of the previous generation.

All of this illustrates the need for a book that gives Balfour his due as a political leader, and this is what Ewen Green has done in this concise yet informative work. As a longtime student of British politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Green supplies insights gained from his long study of the ideology of the Conservative Party in that era. In the process he credits Balfour for his many accomplishments over the course of his career, which continued up to nearly the end of his long life. As a result, while limited in the coverage of Balfour's time as prime minister, this is an excellent short survey of his life and career, one that is necessary reading for anyone interested in Balfour, his ideas, and his achievements within the context of a momentous period in the history of the British Isles. ( )