Lord Dufferin Ireland and the British Empire c. 1820–1900

<p>This book explores the life and career of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902). Dufferin was a landowner in Ulster an urbane diplomat literary sensation courtier politician colonial governor collector son husband and father. The book draws on episodes from Dufferin’s career to link the landowning and aristocratic culture he was born into with his experience of governing across the British Empire in Canada Egypt Syria and India. This book argues that there was a defined conception of aristocratic governance and purpose that infused the political and imperial world and was based on two elements: the inheritance and management of a landed estate and a well-defined sense of ‘rule by the best’. It identifies a particular kind of atmosphere of empire and aristocracy one that was riven with tensions and angst as those who saw themselves as the hereditary leaders of Britain and Ireland were challenged by a rising democracy and in Ireland by a powerful new definition of what Irishness was. It offers a new perspective on both empire and aristocracy in the nineteenth century and will appeal to a broad scholarly audience and the wider public.</p>