Disraeli: or, The Two Lives

One such imprint was noted by Disraeli’s long-term political companion and ultimately his enemy, Edward Stanley, the 15th Earl of Derby, in his diaries. There is no repetition anywhere of the conversation which Disraeli held with Stanley in 1851 in which he expounded the advantages of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. But it is clear that Di

To Nathan Rothschild, Disraeli had been a champion of the Jewish race and indeed a remarkable friend to his own family, risking his career by supporting the right of Jews to sit in the House of Commons. Paradoxically, Disraeli had based his argument not on the liberal case for tolerance and equality but on the bolder, more controversial claim that

He despised the mathematical or utilitarian approach to politics. He attacked those who mistook comfort for civilisation. In his view real civilisation required deeper roots. A nation to be worthy of the name will build on its own history, customs and creed.

This point about imagination is vital. Disraeli believed it was the guiding political quality.

how was it that Disraeli, a bankrupt Jewish school dropout and trashy novelist, came to exert such a hold on the Victorian Conservative Party,

At the heart of Disraeli’s beliefs lay the thought that imagination and courage are the indispensable components of political greatness for an individual or a nation. That conviction, rather than any particular Bill, book, speech, treaty or quotation, is the true legacy of Benjamin Disraeli.