'By the gains of Industry, we promote Art' 'In Birmingham you may generally recognise a board school by it being the best building in the neighbourhood, with its lofty towers, gabled windows, warm red bricks and stained glass.' So observed the Pall Mall Gazette in 1894. The famous civic gospel shaped Birmingham
In 1938 rapturous crowds greeted Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he proclaimed Peace for our time on his return from meeting Adolf Hitler in Munich.
The Birmingham Political Machine is the first full study of the electioneering methods by which Joseph Chamberlain and his loyal allies dominated Midlands politics for 30 years, and how their formidable machine successfully exported Birmingham's values in national campaigns for greater democracy, education reform, Imperialism and tariff reform.