'The person who walks for the first time through the door of Number 10 as Prime Minister does not create or re-create the Prime Ministership: the job, to a considerable extent, already exists.'Yet each Prime Minister makes a singular contribution to the ever-changing role, which the office encompasses, and thereby shapes the history of the country. In the 20th century, 20 very different individuals walked through that door. This unique collection of biographical essays will portray the life, the leadership, and the legacy of these 19 men and one woman. Read together it will offer a complete portrait of the political life of Britain in the 20th century. The first incumbents were still men of the Victorian era, a time of empire and of rigid class structure: the first one was the last prime minister to be a member of the House of Lords. The last prime minister of the 20th century abolished the right of hereditary peers to a seat in the upper chamber. Between them the 20th century prime ministers lost the empire and, not having found a new role in the world, are doing a lot of soul-searching about the country's place in Europe. The century saw the rise of a new party (Labour) and the decline of an old one (Liberals). The required skills of a prime minister changed with the times: inspirational war leaders lost the peace. Brilliant parliamentarians could not manage an economy no longer working in national isolation.The series authors are a mixture of journalists with a deep sense of the past and a track record of writing history; or academics with a wide range of interest and a proven ability of presenting information accessibly; and politicians who understand history and can write about it.