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A one-volume history of the Liberal Party and its antecedents, the alliance between the Liberals and the SDP in the 1980s, and of the Liberal Democrats. Drawing on the most recent scholarly research it sets out how the Liberal Party was formed in the mid-nineteenth century; the impact of Ireland and Gladstone's support for 'Home Rule'; the reasons for the Party's calamitous decline after the First World War; and the factors underlying the Party's unexpected revival in the second half of the twentieth century, culminating in the formation of the Liberal Democrats and the party's subsequent history. Currents in liberal thinking are explained and also included are biographies of key individuals, election results, and a timeline of key events.