ABSTRACT
Joseph Chamberlain certainly left his mark on British politics in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was a social reformer in both Birmingham and government, drawn in by his interest in education, and an immensely talented and ambitious politician. He was also a destroyer of political parties: he helped to divide the Liberal Party in 1886 and the Conservative/Unionist alliance between 1903 and 1906. As he emerged as a politician he became the archetypal Social Imperialist, with a powerful political base (in Birmingham) which could not easily be defied. However, his great talents and abilities were wasted as his commitment to specific political causes — Unionism and Protectionism - meant that he never reached the political heights to which he seemed destined to rise.
