Benjamin Disraeli was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was born on December 21, 1804, and died on April 19, 1881. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice. He was one of the most important people in making the modern Conservative Party, helping to set its policies and define its wide reach. People remember Disraeli for his strong voice in world affairs, his political fights with William Ewart Gladstone, the leader of the Liberal Party, and his one-nation conservatism, also called "Tory democracy." He made the Conservatives the party that most people thought of when they heard the words "British Empire" and "military action to grow it," which were both things that British voters liked. Disraeli began writing novels in 1826, and his last one, Endymion, came out just before he died at the age of 76. Over the course of his life, Disraeli's writing and politics influenced each other. This made him "one of the most prominent figures in Victorian public life" and led to a lot of commentaries. Disraeli thought about running for office after he became a Christian. Since Sampson Gideon in 1770, when he was elected as an MP, there have been Jewish MPs.