This biographical study of the early career of David Lloyd George explains the political maturation of the man who cast a broader shadow over his times than any other contemporary British politician, Winston Churchill possibly accepted. Don M. Cregier relates Lloyd George’s successive roles as a youthful Welsh nationalist agitator, a rising British politician committed to policies identified with the Nonconformist Free Churches and a cabinet minister often regarded as the father of the British welfare state. The book ends at the point (Britain's decision to enter the European war) at which Lloyd George was abruptly transformed by events and his reaction to them from domestic reformer to militant organiser of Britain's war machine.

Cregier emphasises four themes relatively understated in previous treatments of Lloyd George. He describes in detail Lloyd George’s activities as a Welsh nationalist; demonstrates the powerful influences of Lloyd George’s lower middle class origins and upbringing upon his behaviour, style, and ideas; puts to rest the myth that until August 1914, Lloyd George was a pacifist and anti-militarist; and explores Lloyd George’s affinity for coalition, multiparty, and nonparty political experiments – a trait much at odds with other British politicians of the times. The author furnishes evidence, some from previously unexplored sources, to develop each of these themes.