Book review: Chris Ballinger, The House of Lords 1911–2011—A Century of Non-Reform. Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2012. xiv+249pp., £31.00 (hardback). £27.90 (ebook). ISBN: 978-1-78225-048-7

The most radical attempt to alter the position of the House of Lords, in the form of total abolition, lasted a mere 11 years. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 also witnessed the revival of this institution. Despite this act of resurrection, the subsequent history of the upper house of Parliament of the United Kingdom has continued to be plagued by a sense of uncertainty. A few years after its revival, the power of the House of Lords to initiate and amend financial bills was curtailed by a confident and assertive lower house. In the eighteenth century, persistent fears that the Crown might flood the upper house by creating a large number of new peers saw unsuccessful attempts to limit this power.