Benjamin Disraeli

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (born Benjamin D'Israeli; 21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881), was a British statesman, Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the British Empire and military action to expand it, both of which were popular among British voters. He is the only British prime minister to have been born Jewish. Disraeli was born in Bloomsbury, at that time a part of Middlesex. His father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue; Benjamin became an Anglican at the age of 12. After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House… Read by Shayday~enwiki. Recorded May 2020; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=958418581 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BenjaminDisraeli.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. Chapter images come from the recorded article via Wikimedia Commons; each chapter links its file page for credits. This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.