Birmingham exceptionalism, Joseph Chamberlain and the 1906 general election

摘要

The 1906 General Election marked the end of a prolonged period of Unionist government. The Liberal Party inflicted the heaviest defeat on its opponents in a century. Explanations for, and the implications of, these national results have been exhaustively debated. One area stood apart, Birmingham and its hinterland, for here the Unionists preserved their monopoly of power. This thesis seeks to explain that extraordinary immunity from a country-wide Unionist malaise.udIt assesses the elements which for long had set Birmingham apart, and goes on to examine the contribution of its most famous so, Joseph Chamberlain; it seeks to establish the nature of the symbiotic relationship between them and to understand how a unique electoral bastion came to be built in this part of the West Midlands, a fortress of durability and impregnability without parallel in modern British history.