HISTORICAL REVISION

LX.XXVII.-CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN AND THE LIBERAL

IMPERULISTS, (1906-1908).1
SIR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN was prime minister of
Great Britain from December 1905 until April 1908, and the
importance of this period in British foreign policy is unquestioned.
In January 1906 there were militry
conversations with France in connection with the Algeciras crisis; in
August 1907 came the announcement of tho Anglo-Russian
agreement. These two developments, which saw
1 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NoTB.-Of the various officiAI collections of
diplomatic: docwnents, the following may be consulted for the Campbell-
Bannerman p<>riod : Gooch, G. P., and Temperley, H., Briiish Documet!J.8 01•
the Origin8 of the War,
1898-1914, vols. 3, 4, 5 and 6; Lepsius, J., Jllendelssohn Bartholdy, A., Thimmo,
F., Dit gro88e Politik der eurl>pdi8Che n Kabinute, 1871-1914, vols. 21-25;
and Die bclgisd>en Dokumente zur VorgeschichU de8 IVe//kri<gu (the "erster
Ergiinz. ungsband " and the "erater Kommentarband ").
On Campbell.Bannerman hillUlelf tho st·an®rd Jifo is that by J.
A.Spendor The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Oampbell-Bamwrman, 2 vols.,
London, 1923. For his period as prime minister, the following biographies are
of first-rate im p<>rtance : Spender, J. A., and Asquith, C., Life of Herbert
H•nry Asquith, LOTd O>:f<>rd a.ad AsquiJh, 2 vols., London, 1932; Wolf, L.,
L1fe of tl•e flrst Marque88 of Ri'f"'YI, 2 vols., London, 1921; Nicolson, H., Sir
Arthur Nicolson, Bart., first Lord Oamock ,London, 1930; Maurice, Sir F.,
Hal.daoo, 1811.5-1915, London, 1937.
To these may be added : Grey, Viscount, Twenty-Five Years, 2 vols.,
London, 1925; Haldane, R. B., Before th• IVar, London, 1920, and An
Amobiography, London, 1929; Lloyd George, D., J.Var MenaoirB, vol. I,
London, 1933; Lee, Si.r S., King Edward Vll, vol. n, London, 1927;
Churchill, W. S., The World Crisis, 19IJ-1914, London, 1923.
On Grey him.self (in addition to his own Twenty-Five Years) the outstanding
study in English is by G. 111. Trevelyan, Grey of Falloden. There is also a Ger
man stu<!f by H. Lutz, Lord Grey u11d der WeUl-rieg, Berlin, 192·7
(translated into English as Lord Grey and the TV<>r/d IVar, London, 1928.) G.
P. Gooch has a section on Grey in Before the lfar, vol. u, London, 1938. :M.
Boveri in Sir Edward Grey 1md da.a Foreig» Office, Berlin, 1933, makee an
interesting attempt to explore the working of the Foreign Office and the making
of British policy.
On Liberal party history, with special reference to the dissensions between
imperialists and radicals, inaddition to the biographies mentioned above,
reference may be made to : Gardiner, A. 0.., Li/• of Sir ll'iUiam Harcourt, 2
vols., London, 1923 ; Crewe, Marquess of, L<>rd Rosebery, 2 vols., London.
1931. The origins of the Liberal Imperialist schism are explored in Tyler, J.
E., Tl1t Struggu for lmp•rial UniJy, 1868-1896, London, 1938.
For an account of Anglo-German naval rivalry (189S-1914), Woodward,
E. L., Great Britain and the German Navy, Oxford, 1935, is indispensable. The
pre.War military conversat ions with France and Belgium and their bearing on
British foroign policy are studied in Tyler, J. E.. The British Army and the
Cot•· ti11e11t, 190l-I9U, London, 1938. On Anglo.German relations, see
Mowat, R. B.. Great Britain and Germany in the early Twentieth Century, in
the English Historical Revitw, July, 1931. Anglo.German trade.rivalry is
discussed in Hoff man, R. J. S., Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry,
1875-1914, London, 1933. Maddox, W. P., FOTeign Relations in Briti8h
Lalxrur PoliJica, Cambridge (Mass.), 1934, is an intel'63ting attempt to
explore Labour reactions on foreign issues between 1900 and 1924.
For British foreign policy in general HaJevy, E., Hi•t<>ire du Peuple
Angi'.ais, Epilogue 11, Paris, 1932; Ensor, R. C. K., Englm1d, 1870-1914,
Oxford, 1936, and Spender, J. A., Fifty Years of Europe, London, 1933, should
all be consulted. Mr. Spender's Life, Jotm!Olwn and PoliJ ic.a, 2 vols.,
London, 1927, is also of great value (especially for the history of the Liberal
party) as the reminiscencee of one in close touch with affairs during periods of
Liberal government .