Professor Bentley takes the reader into the minds of the politicians of the day, men such as Wellington, Peel, Disraeli, Salisbury and Asquith, as they and their colleagues did their best to control, manipulate (and often retard) the onset of "democracy". Combining a deep personal knowledge of political history with the latest research he presents a highly original account of how Britain was transformed from a society governed by the landed gentry to one responsive to the pressures of the newly-industrialized masses.