Book Description
This new and up-to-date edition of a book that has been central to political philosophy, history, and revolutionary thought for two hundred years offers readers a dire warning of the consequences that follow the mismanagement of change. Written for a generation presented with challenges of
terrible proportions--the Industrial, American, and French Revolutions, to name the most obvious--Burke's Reflections of the Revolution in France displays an acute awareness of how high political stakes can be, as well as a keen ability to set contemporary problems within a wider context of
political theory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Edmund Burkes contribution
This book is excellent because it is exactly what I needed, that is an account of Edmund Burkes thinking, what it is he contributed to our understanding of government.

A Warning to Those in Love with Unbridled Power and Vulnerable to Anything New
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)wrote REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE in 1789 which was four years before the rise of the fanatical Jacobins and the execution (murder)of Louis XVI.This book was not only well written but very prophetic on the tragic events that were part of the French Revolution.Burke showed historical insight and warned both the British and the French what was going to happen.

Burke cited conditions in France prior to the French Revolution. He certainly did not give a false representation of the economic and social conditions in France, but he was clear that, while not perfect, the French had advanced culture and tolerable living standards.He also warned the French that abrupt changes without recourse to tradition and legal norms were dangerous and would end in tyranny. Readers should be aware that Burke's assessment of the French political system was that the French had reasonble politcal freedom and prosperity. To destroy this political system would end in political disruption, social and political violence, lack of law-and-order, and the rise of tyrannical military leaders.

One should note Burke's assessment of the members of the French National Assembly which was vacilating and subject to the whims of any "political interest group" was serious.He suggested that military officers would be among those "pleaders" would be military officers who would be difficult to control.He also warned that when someone who understood the art of command got control of the military officers, the days of the French Republic and the National Assembly were over.The military commander would be in total control, and this is exactly what happened when Napolean I (1769-1821)started to exhibit military genius, he quickly got power by a coup d' etat in 1799 and became the French Emperor by 1804.

Burke's warnings of disaster and tragedy were fullfilled.From at least 1792 until 1815, the French were almost constantly at war with most Europeans.While the French Empire expanded beyond anything prior French monarchs ever dreamed of, the collapse of the French Empire came quickly, and the French empire was ended by 1815 at terrible cost in both blood treasure.Burke warned of these dangers, and his predictions were accurate.

Burke lived just long enough to see the rise and fall of the maniacal Jacobins which included the Reigh of Terror (1792-1794)and the execution of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie antionette.Had Burke lived a few more years, he could have resorted to remarking, "I told you so."

Edmund Burke has been defined as a conservative which is true.However, Burke was not a reactionary.Burke realized that progress, whatever that may mean, is often slow and within the confines of historical tradition, legal norms, and established law.Burke warned his readers, to use modern parlance, against "wipe the slate clean."Burke clearly understood that to "wipe the slate clean, meant mass dislocation of men and ultimately mass executions (mass murder).Subsequent modern political revolutions vindicate this view.

Readers may wonder why Burke expressed support for the American Revolution but strongly opposed the French Revolution.A careful examination of these revolutions provides the answer.The American "revolutionaries" were arguing for their "Rights of Englishmen" which had a long tradition in Great Britain.Henry II (1154-1189) started the use grand juries.The English had the right of trial by jury by the time of Edward I (1272-1307). The fact is the American colonists wanted to rules of common law and long established legal traditions to apply to them.The British wanted to rule the American colonists with administrative law using clever bureaucrats, as Burke would probably have called them, rather than use British Constitutional Law and the Common Law which many American colonists demanded.The French, on the other hand, wanted to replace a weak monarch with "clever bureaucrats" which Burke knew very well could not work in France.

Readers should note that Thomas Paine (1737-1809)wrote a response to Burke's REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION titled THE RIGHTS OF MAN.While Paine's views were different than those of Burke's Paine's book was just as brilliant as Burke's.Readers should read both works if they want exposure to profound political thought and excellent writing.This is much preferred to the current political nonsense that is pushed by media talking heads and journalists who cannot think or write.Burke and Paine were well read men and offered readers history lessons as well as politcal lessons.

Edmund Burke's REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE is highly recommended regardless of one's political persuasion.This book is not a light read and takes time.However, one will be better informed and wiser for doing so.Again, this reviewer suggests the reader should read Thomas Paine's THE RIGHTS OF MAN to draw comparisons and contrasts.

A Classic of Conservative Thought
In 1789, the year of the French Revolution, Burke received a request from a good friend living in France to provide his thoughts on the Revoution. The result- one of the finest pieces of political discourse ever written. For those encountering Burke for the first time, his adament defense of the crown, and of hereditary succcesion, seem to make a hypocrite of this self-proclaimed liberal. Burke, however, was not defending an absolute monarch who ruled under the charter of divine right, but rather, pointing out the danger of a perfect democracy, whose sovereign (the national assembly) was compelled not to a moral authority such as a Church, nor to a fixed consitution. In short, liberty was safer restricted in civil socity, than left unchecked.

Whether you find Burke's analysis, consistent with your political leanings, or more likely, you find his writing very offensive, you can appreciate both the efffect of this work on American and European political though, as well as the reason and intelligence with which it was written.

The finest writing ever in English prose!
This small title is actually a letter that the author wrote to a friend in France.When Edmund Burke wrote this letter about the French Revolution (where the king was overthrown and beheaded by the masses aka Jacobins), English scholars agree that the result was the finest piece of prose in the English language; only a few poets have succeeded in writing something finer.Whether you agree with Burke's interpretation or not is not the point; he penned the finest piece of literature ever in the English language.

As a historian and social commentator, Burke is a "structural functionalist" decades before that term was dreamed up.He recognizes that the French are not only creatures of their culture, but prisoners.And to compare them to the English colonists and other insurgents in the American colonies who revolted against the British government is to compare apples and oranges.Whereas the Yankee revolution of 1776 was Biblically-inspired and the propaganda for rebellion preached from the pulpits, the French were railing AGAINST the Catholic Church for keeping people ignorant and in their Dark Age.

Burke says the French Revolution is a revolution without its moorings, without the necessary principles to guide individual behavior, and without the maintenance of institutions that long provided stability and security.What the French philosophes were writing was mere balderdash, says Burke.Without their traditions, customs, and institutitions that had slowly brought the French out of barbarity and into a civilized manner of living, Burke saw in revolution a rapid decline and fall of the French people into a visciousness of dog-eat-dog.

In short, Burke saw the French Revolution as lacking virtue and descending into terrorism; whereas the Yankee Revolution was virtuous and grew into a democracy.

Whether you agree with Burke or not, and I do not, his writing in this letter to a friend is the finest example of English writing to be found and should be read by everyone simply for that reason alone.

Not Just for Undergrads!
This is an indispensible essay for anyone who has ever been interested in politics. It is composed of beautiful prose, crisp logic, and perennially relevant material.

You must read Burke to understand the why it is worth being critical of the French Revolution and to understand some major reasons for the counter-revolutionary movement in France.

... Read more

Book Description
No conservative library is complete without the thought of Edmund Burke, the founder of modern conservatism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Best of Burke is the best Burke I've read
For the student of politics and politcal philosophy this compilation is a wonderful 'must-read'.I was captured at times by the power of Burke's writing.Occasionally I was so taken with the majesty of his language and the power of his logic that I found myself reading aloud, savoring each word.For example, try rolling these phrases off your tongue: "Liberty...is a general principle, and the clear right of all subjects within the realm, or of none.Partial freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery.But unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery most easily admitted....The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts."Burke's erudition and style are refreshing in a modern political landscape of mediocrity and mindless soundbites. Editor Peter Stanlis divides the book into eight roughly chronological sections from Burke's seminal writings in the mid-1700's through his celebrated expressions as a member of Parliament debating the American Revolution, Ireland and Catholic Emancipation, Economic Reforms, British misrule in India and the subsequent impeachment of Governor-General Hastings.The Book concludes with selections from Burke's exceptional observations on the French Revolution, thoughts which galvanized British opposition to the revolutionary regimes and gave the intellectual undergirding of the Napoleonic Wars.Stanlis also provides the reader with helpful prequels setting the stage for each of the selected writings or speeches, a chronological table of Burke's life, a handy selected bibliography and a concise indroduction to the whole work which is an excellent summary of what follows.This hardback edition is well bound on quality paper.It will survive the many re-readings and quick searches it deserves. The one flaw in this edition is the lack of a helpful appendix or index.Even though my copy is well underscored and highlighted with marginal notes to flag key thoughts or expressions, appendices would save time thumbing through nearly 700 pages to find a particular quote.The book is not a quick read, yet it is surprisingly relevant to today's headlines.Burke's brilliant insights into human nature and the practical workings of governments far outshine most modern pundits.This book is now a standard reference work in my personal library, sitting on a close-at-hand shelf for ready access. ... Read more

Book Description
The most comprehensive one-volume edition of Burke's writings on politics, history, and culture.

The intellectual wellspring of modern political conservatism, Edmund Burke is also considered a significant figure in aesthetic theory and cultural studies. As a member of the House of Commons during the late eighteenth century, Burke shook Parliament with his powerful defense of the American Revolution and the rights of persecuted Catholics in England and Ireland; his indictment of the English rape of the Indian subcontinent; and, most famously, his denouncement of English Jacobin sympathizers during the French Revolution.

The Portable Edmund Burke is the fullest one-volume survey of Burke's thought, with sections devoted to his writings on history and culture, politics and society, the American Revolution, Ireland, colonialism and India, and the French Revolution. This volume also includes excerpts from his letters and an informative Introduction surveying Burke's life, ideas, and his reception and influence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Broad but emasculated coverage
"The Portable Edmund Burke" is useful in supplying a number of pieces not otherwise easily obtainable.It, like most books in the Viking Portable Library series, is missing the notes and especially the index that many people would have found useful. To make room for the 47 selections, several have been severely abridged."Reflections on the Revolution is France" is whittled to leave only about 30% of it.Anyone needing this should look to a full-length treatment. Good ones include the Yale edition of Frank M. Turner, which has an excellent index, occasional notes, and several first-class essas; and Oxford World's Classic edition of L.G. Mitchell, which also has a helpful index and good notes. The speech on conciliation with America is similar chopped to a mere shadow of itself.The Lamont edition is not easily obtainable, which is a pity,but the notes and index of the Cambridge edition of Ian Harris will do well enough for most students. 'A Vindication of Natural Society' survives better (about half of it survives in this edition), but again the Harris edition is a better choice.

If you want a wide picture of Burke's writing, this text is probably for you.If you want to read any of his important texts, then choose something else.

Amputated rather than edited...
Burke's most important work "Reflections on the Revolution in France" is reduced from nearly 200 pages to 60 pages in this volume.Yet nowhere in the book does the editor describe what he selected or what he dropped, or the basis for his decisions.

Comparing my copy of "Reflections.." to this chopped version I found that Kramnick had dropped passages that were highly insightful.

When I discovered this, I could no longer be confident that the other works were not similarly mangled.I will now search for an anthology of works that is more respectful of the originals (or at least one where the editor is more open about his approach).

Thematic is best
Presenting Edmund Burke thematically is perhaps the only way to really approach Burke, as Conor Cruise O'Brien or Russell Kirk (Burke's best biographers) would probably agree. So unlike `On Empire, Liberty, and Reform,' which is chronological, the portable Edmund Burke instead tackles Burke under the themes of America, Ireland, India, and the French Revolution, and a couple other sub-themes, with invaluable commentary. By the end of the book, Burke is better enveloped here than in most biographies, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Our ideas of the sublime and beautiful: Where do they originate?
Burke's Enquiry is a surprising and remarkable little work. If you expect the Burke who fits your stereotype of the conservative Tory politician, that is not what you will find here at all--but rather a clear and insightful discussion of our feelings and emotions of awe and beauty in nature and in art, and especially poetry.

Based on self-observation and reflection, Burke takes a scientific, almost Newtonian approach to the fascinating question of what it is that makes us feel the presence of the sublime and the beautiful.

These are amazing observations for a 28-year-old--remarkable as well because they were written in 1757.Consistent with the 18th Century outlook, he refers to the emotions as "the passions," and it's obvious he's done a good deal of thinking about them.

The sublime, for Burke, is generated by passions connected to self preservation and which "turn on pain and danger. They are simply painful when their causes immediately affect us. They are delightful when we have an idea of pain or danger without being actually in such circumstances. This delight I have not called pleasure because it is different enough from any idea of positive pleasure. Whatever excites this delight, I call sublime."

By beauty, Burke means the quality or qualities in bodies by which they cause love or some passion similar to it.He makes sure to distinguish love from lust or desire. This is quite a different view than the Platonic view of beauty as resonant with eternal forms and ideas.

Burke identifies specific qualities that generate beauty: to be comparatively small, smooth, having parts not angular but melted into one another. He cites the example of a dove as a creature having this beauty.

There is a big difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terror; the latter on small ones and pleasing.

Burke's Enquiry refers almost exclusively to the physical and emotional properties, and he provides many examples of shapes and forms which do or do not evoke the sublime and beautiful--so that we can be clear about what he is talking about. This work is concrete--not at all abstract as one might expect of a philosophical work.

Will today's readers find Burke's work interesting? It's a good bet that many will. The idea of the sublime seems a bit dated, yet it is still with us in great natural scenery, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, etc. And something very much in evidence, for example in the popular photography of Ansel Adams. The concept of beauty in today's popular culture has become so watered down (there's now a beauty "industry," complete with beauty "products") that it should do the contemporary reader good to consider Burke's idea of what true beauty is. There's good reason to hope the idea of beauty in art and poetry may make a comeback--and not be viewed as elitist or aristocratic snobbery.

Oxford's good little edition contains the Introduction on Taste, which Burke added after 1757, and a good chronology and textual notes.

Remember taste? That is something people used to strive to possess. In the tastelessness of this postmodern world, a little consideration of taste would do us all some good.

A Brilliant Enquiry into the Passions of Love and Fear
Edmund Burke's 1757 treatise, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," is a clearly written, well-argued, and variously inflected work of philosophy.Coming out of and contending with the traditions of philosophies of passion, understanding, and aesthetics from Aristotle and Longinus to Descartes, Hobbes to Locke, and Shaftesbury to Hume, Burke would seem to be taking on a world of difficulty at the tender age of 28.However, Burke manages to maintain control and exercise great wit in his treatise by confining his "Enquiry" to the ways we interact with the physical world, and how in this interaction, we formulate our aesthetic ideas of sublimity and beauty.

Burke's "Enquiry" is divided into five parts, with an introduction.The introduction is perhaps his most witty segment, as he tries, as Shaftesbury, Addison, and Hume before him, to formulate a standard of Taste, a popular subject of conjecture in the 18th century.Physically, and not without some irony, he chooses to speak of Taste primarily as a feature of eating.In response to his predecessors, though, he does say that since our attitudes toward the world come from our senses, that the majority of people can see (sight being very important) and react; thus all people are capable of some degree of Taste.Education and experience, he must admit, though, do refine Taste.In Part One, Burke examines the individual and social causes which arouse our sense of the sublime and the beautiful, those being the primal feelings of terror/pain and love/pleasure, respectively.Throughout the "Enquiry," Burke insists that these are not opposites strictly speaking - that pain and pleasure are mediated by a neutral state of indifference, which is the natural state of man.(Compare that idea to Hobbes and Locke!)

Parts Two, Three, and Four find Burke explaining his notion of the passions in relation to his basis of the physical world.Grandeur, potential threat, darkness, and ignorance for Burke excite our nerves and produce the sublime, a feeling of terror which is simultaneously delightful as long as it does not cause immediate pain.These he finds both in the physical world and in tragedies of literature and history.Smallness, softness, clarity, and weakness delimit the beautiful, which produces affection and sympathy.The contrasts and interventions that Burke makes throughout the "Enquiry" on these bases are variously inflected with issues of anxiety over gender roles, race, and power.Burke's politics give the work a joyful and troubling complexity to the literary minded.

Part Five, then, is a look at the effect that words, language, and poetry can have in influencing our affect in regards to the sublime and the beautiful.In it, he gathers together statements he sprinkles throughout the treatise on the nature of poetry - that its emphasis on representation of emotion, rather than imitation of objects, gives it a power that is perhaps unequalled even by nature.In Burke's "Enquiry," one can see a nascent fascination with landscape, mystery, and sensation that would find its flowering in the Gothic and Romantic movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.His insistent break with earlier philosphers who combined aesthetics and morality is a serious challenge to moral philosophy with regard to art and Taste.His physical descriptions of emotional response prefigures Freud's psychological ponderings in "Three Essays on Sexuality" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," as well as linguistic theory.In all, a fascinating and complicated work for being as short as it is.

This review is dedicated to the memory of Vernon Lau.Unfortunately, Burke did not deal in the "Enquiry" with the pain or terror of immediate personal loss.One can only wonder if Burke's obsession with philosophical distance between people and fear wasn't motivated by a loss of his own.

philosophicalby Edmund Burke
A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, 1759

A thoughtful look at what we can't define...and taste.
Burke points out the things all around us that we take for granted but which really are absolutely amazing in his discourse on the sublime.A galloping stead, the expanse of a starry night, or a range of towering,snow-capped mountains.Burke points out these awe-some sights which inthemselves provoke us to ask of their origins.

This book can berepetitious as Burke attempts to make, especially on taste, his pointabsolutely clear (I've got one of the later editions -1772.).

Additionally, some of the lines in the book are near-timeless andare good to have around to reference from. ... Read more

Book Description
A classic of modern aesthetics that remains both influential and engaging, by the politician many consider the father of modern conservatism.

From the awesome thrill of the sublime to the delightful perfection of the beautiful, Edmund Burke gives an involving account of our sensory, imaginative, and judgmental process and its relation to artistic pleasure--it is a text that influenced the writers of the Romantic period. This edition also features several of Burke's early political works, which illustrate that, despite his later opposition to the Revolution in France, he took a liberal and humane view of society and government. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful includes Burke's political parody, "A Vindication of Natural Society," and his essays on the American colony--"Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," "Speech on American Taxation," "Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies," and "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America." This authoritative edition has securely established texts, and in his illuminating Introduction, David Womersley clearly reveals the cross-pollination of Burke's aesthetic and political thinking: the power exercised by art and the art of exercising power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Real Statesman
This is a good book by the articulate (very quotable) and profound philosopher-legislator Edmund Burke, who served in the English Parliament around the time of the American Revolution.Burke (1729-97) also authored the famous and controversial (at least at the time) work, "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790).

Of course, the main work in the Penguin Classics edition featured here is "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful".It was notably influential on many of Burke's contemporaries, as well as on later literary artists such as William Wordsworth and Matthew Arnold.

However, some of the minor works appended to this edition, such as the 1777 "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America" (which is like a long, eloquent letter home to constituents) should not be overlooked.Indeed, while perusing this latter piece (and others included here, such as "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents"), I couldn't help thinking how beneficial it would be to have a few sensible Edmund Burke-types serving in Congress or the White House right now as America deals with its global military adventures.America's Revolutionary War might even have been avoided if stubborn, indignent, autocratic, and belligerent King George III would have listened more closely to and followed Burke's reasoned advice.

It's a bit hilarious and ironic to think that, today, Burke is typically thought of as a political "conservative".Read this stuff, and you will likely agree that, in many respects, he was much more a thoughtful, humane liberal. ... Read more

Book Description
By any reasonable judgment, Burke has to be considered one of the world's outstanding thinkers on politics.-- Peter J. Stanlis, from his Preface ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Classical Regnery Anthology of a Conservative Luminary
~Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches~ is a great anthology of conservative luminary Edmund Burke's political and social writings. Burke is considered by many to be the godfather of conservatism. The Irish-born British conservative entered Trinity College at Dublin in 1744 and later moved to London in 1750. In 1770, in his tract entitled the 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,' he scolded George III for his efforts at undoing the hard-won liberties that were thought to have been secured by the Glorious Revolution. Burke was a champion of the rule of law, and surmised that prerogatives of the king may not usurp that law, and that even the magistrates are to be constrained by the law. He defended the constraining hand of Parliament against the king's usurpations and cronyism in political appointments. He supported principled, calm, deliberative criticism of royal prerogatives by Parliamentarians, which he held to be a vital link in the preservation of the British constitution and ordered liberty.

Burke was an Old Whig, and on the Right side of the political spectrum and had no rosy delusions about human nature. His contemporaries on the Left like Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a positive and a optimistic view of human nature, and in his eyes humanity merely needed to be liberated from the decadent enslaving institutions of civil society. On the other hand, Burke recognized man's sinful nature and innate depravity and incorporated the Augustinian-Christian doctrine of original sin into his political philosophy. "Whatever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man," declares Burke. What is more, Burke does not see equality as self-evident, but he astutely observes that inequality is part of the natural order of things. The ideal equality to strive for was equality before the law, not equality of condition or even opportunity. Burke recognized that the illusive search for equality was in fact destructive of the liberty that was to accompany it because egalitarian ideology was fundamentally at odds with human nature.For this reason, Burke was opposed to the French Revolution and scolded the Jacobin rebellion for its barbarity, its egalitarian tyranny, and the unattainable antinomy of absolute freedom that was sought after. He likewise abhorred the initial English enthusiasm for the events across the sea in France and lamented that such an upheaval would never afflict England. Yet Burke, an Old Whig was a champion of the Rights of the Englishmen, and spoke out on behalf of the American, Irish and the Indian colonials. "Good order is the foundation of all things," quipped Burke in his Reflections on the French Revolution. Burke offered much prescriptive wisdom about reforming and bettering civil society while conserving the vital remnants and traditions so vitally requisite to the continuity of civil society. He yielded his acquiescence of support to the American Cause of 1776 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Burke assailed the abuses perpetrated against American colonials in exploitative taxation, arbitrary suspension of the rights of colonials and an overall condescending attitude of contempt that pervaded the attitude of government towards the colonial subjects therein. Burke worked tirelessly for conciliation between British and American colonials, though the Tories prevailed and their efforts to spite and to subjugate the colonials only led to the American colonials' victorious secession by force of arms. Furthermore, Burke was opposed to the aggrandizing of power and the corruption of the law, and recognized that ordered liberty must be upheld. Burke observed, "Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny." He was practical and pragmatic to the extent needed without discarding first principles, as he accepted that, "All government-indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act-is founded on compromise and barter." Yet Burke was mistrustful of concentrated power and observed, "Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief."

The reductionism and sophistry of modern critics casts conservatives as knaves who nostalgically seek preservation of the status quo irrespective of whatever tyrannies and social pathologies afflict the people. However, Burke above all shows that classical conservatism is not quixotic sentimentalism about tradition but rather a desire to conserve those vital remnants so necessary to continuation of ordered liberty while improving civil society through patient, contemplative, informed and calmly deliberative political dialogue. Sometimes standing up to sheer tyranny through resistance and civil disobedience is in order. Though, "Our patience will achieve more than our force," avowed Burke. Burke justly condemned the barbarity of the French Revolution and no doubt considers the interposition of the lesser magistrates as requisite in combating the usurpations of higher magistrates, ministers, and leaders.

All things considered, this brilliant anthology of Burke's more renowned works is certainly a great introduction to the perennial conservative.

conservatism's bard
What a heady time were the late 1700's.For hundreds, even thousands, of years, Western man hadbeen saddled with monarchy; kings who were said to rule by divine right.But by the end of the 18thcentury, Martin Luther, John Locke and Adam Smith had propounded the essential framework formodern liberal capitalist democracy and the Revolution in America had launched a grand experimentbased on those ideas.Then came the French Revolution and it was blithely assumed that here againLiberty was on the march.When suddenly, rising to meet the tide of history, came Edmund Burke toexcoriate the Jacobins and denounce the Revolution.In so doing, he not only did mankind a greatservice, by sounding the alarms against unchecked liberty, he also basically gave birth to modernConservatism.Today, after a long period in the wilderness, particularly during the Cold War, EdmundBurke has come roaring back into fashion.In a sense, he has finally won his argument with thedefenders of the French Revolution, two hundred years after the fact, and is reaping the spoils.

For two centuries a controversy has raged over Burke's political philosophy, in particular whether thegreat defender of American, Irish and Indian rights was inconsistent in opposing the FrenchRevolution.The very existence and the stubborn persistence of this controversy seem to demonstrateeither a complete misunderstanding or a willful misrepresentation of Burke's basic arguments.Onesuspects it's a bit of both.The greatness of Burke lies in the fact that he was among the first, andcertainly the most eloquent, defenders of democracy to recognize the dangers it entails; that power inthe hands of the masses is just as great a threat to liberty as when it lies in the hand of a dictator orking.This point had been amply demonstrated in France, where the revolutionists had quicklyabandoned any concern for personal freedom and had moved on to a bloody demand forequality--freedom's enemy.

It is here that we arrive at the key point that divides the modern Left and Right.The Left believes (a laRousseau) that man is by nature "good" and all men are born with equal abilities, but thatenvironmental factors and corrupt institutions warp individuals, making some evil and keeping othersfrom realizing their full potentials; which if realized would make them equal to other men.The goalof the Left is therefore to remove, by any means necessary, these environmental and institutionalimpediments and return to an imagined state of nature where all men are good and are equally able;where Man will be governed by pure reason.

The Right, on the other hand, recognizes that man is inately "evil"; that is, evil in the sense that he isself centered and will generally act in his own interest not the interest of others.Moreover, men areinherently unequal; in the state of nature, the able will tyrannize the less able.It is for these reasonsthat men form governments in the first place; to protect themselves from one another.The goal of theRight is to provide each individual with the greatest personal freedom and utmost opportunity to realizehis potential, consistent with the basic safety concerns that gave birth to the state in the first instance. Conservatives realize that pure reason will not lead men to treat each other with justice, by nature, menwill always seek advantage over one another.The State and other institutions safeguard us against thiseventuality.

This fundamental difference can not be overstated.Prior to the 18th century, the Left would haveincluded all democrats, while the Right would have been made up of monarchists and supporters ofaristocracy.But beginning with the French Revolution, this fissure separated the regnant liberal forcesinto two competing camps, setting the stage for the two century long contest that ended in the early1990's with the fall of the Soviet Union.Both sides would produce great men, original theorists,brilliant writers and magnificent orators, but none of them would ever surpass Burke and his mastery ofall these fields.Rare are the men who so clearly perceive the fundamental issues that confrontmankind.They seem at times to be travelers from the future, come to warn us about what horrors theyears to come will hold unless we obey their counsel.Rarer still are the occasions when we heedthem.We can only imagine the millions of lives that would have been saved had people followedBurke's vision rather that that of Rousseau and Jefferson and Marx.

Happily, here in America, James Madison's Constitution embodies many of the same ideas and protectsagainst many of the concerns which Burke expressed.The adoption of representative, rather thandirect, democracy; the bicameral legislature and tripartite government; the careful system of checks andbalances; the protection of basic rights from government interference: these are all, though we seldomdiscuss them in these terms, intended to protect the individual from the potentially tyrannical effects ofdemocracy.When commentators speak of the genius of the American system, whether they realize itor not, it is to this central fact that they refer.So while critics have struggled to understand a falsedichotomy in Burke's thought, we (and to a lesser extent the Brits) have enjoyed the fruits of a politicalsystem which assumes that his critique of democracy is less theory than received wisdom.Forwhatever reason, it took two hundred years and countless millions of lives before the rest of the worldrecognized what Burke (the bard) and Madison (the draftsman) had known all along; two centuries thatproved them indisputably correct.

GRADE: A+

One of the 25 most important conservative books
If Ronald Reagan is the great communicator, Burke must be theextraordinary communicator. Someone once said that pages of Burke are likesheets of fire.

        During the time he lived, in the 18th century,most political leaders were hereditary aristocrats, but Burke, like Cicero,did not descend from generations of prominent leaders. He earned hisleadership in British politics through the power of his mind, by studyingpolitical principles and applying them to real circumstances. A superficiallook at Burke's career might tempt one to dismiss him as a failure. Most ofthe causes to which he devoted himself were not successful in hislifetime.

        Prior to the American Revolution, he wrote brilliantlyon behalf of conciliation between Britain and the American colonies. Heargued for fair treatment of India by Britain. He argued for fair treatmentof the Irish by the British and for Catholic emancipation in England. Intime these positions won acceptance, but the acceptance came after Burke'sdeath.

        Fortunately, he did live long enough to see the triumph ofthe greatest work of his life: his effort to awaken his country to thefundamentally destructive but superficially attractive nature of the FrenchRevolution. His thorough and, I believe, inspired condemnation of theFrench Revolution swept British majority opinion. To Burke, more than anyother politician of his time, goes the credit for creating the intellectualforce which saved Europe from revolutionary chaos anddictatorship.

        Modern-day conservatives are also profoundly in hisdebt, as his writings against the French revolution provided thephilosophical foundation for anti-communism in particular and orderedliberty in general. Read Burke. All his writings on government and politicsare a rich ore, studded with gems of wisdom. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

A Scholarly and Tightly Woven Study
"The Great Melody" by Conor Cruise O'Brien is not your traditional biography; there is little here concerning Burke's personal and family life.Instead, the work concentrates on Burke's political career and thought and, specifically, how they relate to his Irish heritage.The result is a fascinating look into the mind and personality of a man who suffered from a conflict of emotions over his Irish heritage that included his father's conversion to Protestantism while his mother and wife remained Catholic.Burke himself was torn in different directions his entire life; loyalty to Britain and also his Irish ancestors and friends suffering under the Penal Laws, loyalty to the British constitution, but also a deep feeling for the need of justice for the oppressed people at home and abroad.

O'Bien's book takes an in-depth look at Burke's career in parliament and as a member of the Whig party through an extensive analysis of his letters, speeches, political relationships, and writings, specifically, as they relate to his struggle on behalf of the American colonists, the struggle of the Irish Catholics, the people of India suffering at the hands of the rapacious East India Co., and the French Revolution.

The work can be a little dry at times and tends to quote in an overly lengthy manner, but the immense erudition and scholarship and the insightful picture of Burke that emerges more than compensate for this.I do wish, however, that O'Brien had spent more time on "Reflections On The Revolution in France," but he feels that since it is so readily available to the reader there is no need. Finally we see an Edmund Burke as he really was and not the "old reactionary" that is so often depicted.We come to understand that Burke always believed that "the people are the true legislator," that Burke did not want to see Americans in Parliament who were slave holders, that he was a life-long opponent of increased powers for the Crown and the corruption such power entailed, that he was one of the few who consistently fought against injustice toward the American colonials, that he found all authoritaianism abhorrent, and that he opposed commercial monopolies and the abuse of power in all its forms.But, because he opposed the overturning of society and its reengineering on the basis of "metaphysical abstractions," he was often portrayed as a reactionary by later pundits.Lewis Namier and his followers are particularly taken to task by O'Brien for this tendency.In the end we see a Burke who always supported basic human rights, but remained constantly aware that real life circumstances must make social and political change possible if such change is not to lead to chaos and violence.Burke's fear of radicalism based upon abstract theory was real and the destructiveness of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Nazi bio-racial religion more than sufficiently proves his point.A reading of O'Brien's fine book can only lead the intelligent reader to a renewed respect for a great man, a decent and liberal minded man, and a man of immense vision.

Burke the Cold War Liberal
There is much in O'Brien's book that is interesting, original and insightful.But it suffers from two fatal flaws, one stylistic/structural, one substantive: (1) It is a mess.It is part personal biography, part intellectual biography, part annotated anthology, all mixed together in a confusing and unsatisfactory hodge-podge that may have been deliberate, given Burke's (and therefore O'Brien's) aversion to systems and abstraction.It is as if the author set out with a firm intention to portray Burke a certain way, collected up all the relevant facts, but just couldn't pull it all together in the end.It reads like a work-in-progress, several drafts short of completion and in dire need of a good editor; (2) It seriously overstates its case, and is therefore simply not reliable as an account of Burke's thought.O'Brien's Burke is a pluralist liberal, one of the "good guys" not to be classed among the "reactionaries", as Isaiah Berlin has done.But as Berlin points out--with far too much courtly politeness--in his exchange with O'Brien (reproduced in the appendix), the author has simply turned a blind eye to those aspects of his subject that make him appear illiberal.Most liberals at the time supported the French Revolution, at least in its early phase, and with good reason: it destroyed a confused mass of privilege, injustice and corruption that served the interests of a largely hereditary elite, which Burke vigorously defended.Most liberals since have supported it too.Few (if any) liberals today would hesitate to condemn someone who defended tradition, hereditary privilege and deference to authority as Burke did.To say that Burke was a liberal just doesn't wash.Granted he had SOME liberal tendencies, but he had many other tendencies that liberals have always found repugnant.It is a crude and one-sided portrait.O'Brien subscribes to the old-fashioned Cold War liberalism of Jacob Talmon, who interpreted the struggle between liberal democracy and "totalitarianism" in the 20th Century as a replay of the struggle between liberalism constitutionalism and the Terror.O'Brien's agenda in this book is to accept this dubious and anachronistic framework and to place Burke firmly on the "correct" side in it, with a demonic Rousseau on the other.THE GREAT MELODY was probably out-of-date before O'Brien wrote a word of it, just as much of Burke was when it appeared in the eighteenth century.

Burke is more than a few famous quotes
Everyone knows Edmund Burke's most famous quote: "for evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing". As a former lecturer in political science, I was mainly familiar with Burke as the founder of Anglo-conservatism (infinitely more nuanced and modern than his equivalent in Franco-conservatism, the Count Joseph de Maistre). I had also read an early work, namely "An Enquiry into the nature of the Beautiful and the Sublime", which I thought a brilliant little jewel. But there's much more about Burke than that.

O'Brien, the great man of Irish diplomacy, shows in this extraordinary book that Burke, whom recently history has shown as a fawning servant to the political leaders of his time (Rockingham and Pitt), was at the heart of the great fight between George III's royal absolutism and the emerging English democracy. Burke was on the right side of virtually all the fights he picked. He advocated equality before the law for the Irish subjects of the king, first tolerance and then freedom for the American colonies, the end of the colonialist abuses of the East India company, and a quarantine on the infectious ideas of the French Revolution. The later one is still a contentious affair. Zhou En Lai famously opined that it was still too early (in the 1970s) to judge the French Revolution. Burke would have had none of that. As early as 1790, in the "benign" initial phase of the revolution, he foresaw the Terror, the execution of the Royal Family, the Consulate and the Empire, and the French banner covering all of the Europe, in the name of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

O'Brien shows the extraordinary situation of an Irish Protestant (always accused of crypto-Catholicism) having great informal influence on the politics of Great Britain, while holding menial offices or representing various "rotten boroughs" in Parliament (this is no aspersion on Burke's memory- that's how politics was done at the time, and anything that gave Burke a pulpit couldn't have been all bad). The "Great Melody" of the title provides the underlying themes around which O'Brien organizes the public part of Burke's life. Far from tiresome, this is a useful device that provides unity and coherence to Burke's thoughts and actions. O'Brien's attacks on mid-century historiography are perfectly adequate, given that much of what was written as that period was designed to regress Burke into irrelevancy, as a sycophant and a lackey. He never was that. He was a good and a great man, and O'Brien does him justice in his book. Perhaps the only fault that I could find in it is a tendency to assume the reader's prior knowledge of the arcanes of Irish history. But these are quibbles. If you can stomach a history of ideas, full of events and studded with memorable characters, this is the book for you.

An excellent biography, highly readable, and bold in thesis.
An excellent biography, highly readable, a bold and ultimately persuasive thesis - that Burke was not only a major political thinker but that he shaped much of the late 18th century.From a fascinating introductionshowing how modern scholars had successfully destroyed and obscured Burke'strue legacy to its brilliant organizing principle (a line from Yeats), thisis a great book.This book should be required reading for every senator,congressman, and presidential candidate - if only to improve the level ofdiscourse by reading Burke's great speeches.Yeats' lines on Burke:"American colonies, Ireland, France, and India/ Harried, and Burke'sgreat melody against it."O'Brien shows how much one great man can doagainst tyranny, and how little.The book falls short on two counts: one,inadequate bios of Rockingham, Fox, Portland, Pitt the Younger, and hisrelation to Sam Johnson and Joshua Reynolds. Two, Burke the man does notwalk these pages as Johnson does Boswell's book.True, O'Brien hasorganized the book around Yeats' lines, but the domestic Burke, the friendof Johnson and Reynolds could have been amplified.These are minor faults. This biography is excellent in so many ways that it compares veryfavorably with Boswell's Johnson and indeed excels it on many fronts.

Masterful Weaving of Political History and Theory
O'Brien does a masterful job of bringing to life a neglected and misunderstood politician and political theorist.Those whose knowledge of Burke is limited to "Reflections" are in for an awakening.By book's end the reader will feel much like I. Berlin (whose correspondence with CCOB is in the appendix) and recant previously held stereotypes of Burke as a reactionary.A thorough detailing of Burke's writings and speeches makes clear that he was far from the two dimensional figure derided in political theory seminars.

O'Brien makes old political controversies regarding Ireland, India, America and revolutionary France fresh and engaging.An initial puzzle of this book is O'Brien's passionate refutations of the Namierite view of Burke.Yet, Burke continues to be a bogeyman to the academic left for good reason.Burke hated tyranny in any form and virtually alone among his contemporaries recognized that recasting society in the name of an idea promised the worst form of tyranny.Devotees of the French Revolution detest Burke whose credentials as a champion of the oppressed in Ireland, India and America were beyond reproof.

O'Brien himself, however, was curiously un-Burkean during his political career as it related to the Cold War.Burke correctly recognized that the French Revolution was a proto-totalitarian movement.He saved his most withering scorn for his former allies who viewed the revolution as a net benefit for the French and the world.In contrast, O'Brien in his UN days urged that Ireland follow the "decent" countries such as Sweden and stay above the US-Soviet fray.One wishes that O'Brien, now in his eighties, would have come to grips with his past as a neutral in the struggle between freedom and the successors of the French Revolution. ... Read more

Book Description
Whether you're a serious cyclist or simply ride for fun and fitness, you'll appreciate the expert advice, wide range of workouts, and helpful sample training programs in Fitness Cycling. Inside you'll find

• tips for starting a cycling training program, from choosing a bicycle to determining your present fitness level;

• six color-coded workout zones containing 56 workouts (45 on-the-road and 11 indoor) that allow you to train at the pace and distance you prefer; and

• six sample cycling programs that show you how to organize the workouts into a safe and effective training plan that meets your needs.

Written by Chris Carmichael and Edmund Burke, two of the world's foremost cycling authorities, Fitness Cycling is part of the Fitness Spectrum Series—a new collection of books from Human Kinetics that offer fitness enthusiasts and sport participants of all backgrounds a practical and flexible approach to training. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good for beginners
Easy to get more improvement with great recomment training ideas,
from easy to extremely hard, from beginners to elite cyclist.

Get its, and make you fit!

Good books for person who interest in cycling sports

Excellent choice to build up cycling fitness
This book has excellent, easy to follow fitness routines for anyone new to cycling or people who have been cycling for some time but have never seemed to get any fitter. The colour coded workouts are easy to follow and moreimportantly give a variety of routes of differing intensity so you neverget bored with the same old route. I did not realise I could have boughtthis book on-line. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Well Worth Every Penny
In this easy to read volume Russell Kirk provides a succinct biography of "the first conservative of our time of troubles."Burke's political philosophy is clearly explained and Kirk introduces the reader to Edmund Burke the man.

The book basically deals with the four major issues of Burke's life: his resistance to Jacobinism, England's relationship with the American Colonies, the prosecution of Warren Hastings, and the stifling of George III's domestic authority.Kirk provides wonderful quotes throughout the book and thorough, balanced analysis.

Those looking for a critical assessment of Burke will not find it here, as Kirk, the great conservative thinker of our time, was a proponent of Burke and felt that his voice was stillapplicable in today's political climate.However, this does not compromise the integrity of this volume.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in political theory, politics, and/or history.

A Well-written Panegyric
Edmund Burke deserves better than this biography.The author Russell Kirk is full of admiration for Burke, but his unqualified praise of his subject is more deserving of a 19th century hagiography than it is a modern work.At no point in the book that I can remember does Kirk ever put anything but the most positive spin on the 18th century statesman/philosopher's actions.Burke is undoubtedly everything Kirk claims -- a great man, a genius, and his influence in both England and the United States largely underestimated - but even the greatest and wisest of men have blind spots and moments of weakness.Was Burke perhaps overzealous in his sixteen-year pursuit of Warren Hastings?Did Burke hide his Irish Catholic roots out of fear for what they could do to his ambitions if brought out in the open?Was his political philosophy less than consistent?Not according to Kirk.

Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered" does have its good points.It's well-written -- far more accessible than the Conor Cruise O'Brien biography "The Great Melody".(To be fair to O'Brien, his biography is not a straightforward work, but presents Burke's life thematically.)Kirk's book also makes some valid points about Burke's legacy, convincing the reader that Burke's philosophy is underappreciated by modern audiences.But a more balanced approach to Burke's life - without all the Great Man gloss -- would have made this point just as effectively.

Great Introduction to Burke
Kirk's introduction to the life and politics of Burke is essential to understanding Edmund Burke in his time and ours. More of a Political biography than a general biography, it is still a book whose prose is very readable and understandable. A biography of a great man by a great man. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Burke's Sublime and Beautiful
The categories of the sublime and the beautiful seem, on first contemplation, an 18th-century distinction with little meaning for our own time. I read this book while preparing a course on J.S. Bach's"Goldberg" Variations and Beethoven's "Diabelli"Variations.The idea was to find a wayof talking about the differencebetween the two pieces.At first brush, the Bach is "beautiful",the Beethoven "sublime", but only a little thought leads to amore complicated view.Both pieces have aspects of both qualities. Nevertheless, my students found the question a fascinating one.

Ofcourse, the book goes well beyond the characteristics of the two qualities. It focusses on the interesting question of how human nature leads us toexperience the two qualities.To me much of Burke's discussion of thispoint seems quite contemporary.

Burke's preference for the sublime overthe beautiful reflects his time at the beginning of the Romantic period inliterature, and anticipates Goethe's (and Beethoven's) celebration of theindividual and direct appeal to the emotions. His essentialist views of thebeautiful as a feminine characteristic seem gratuitous.

I wonder whatBurke would have found to say about, say, the Goldberg, with its formalityand artifice.These characteristics would seem to place the piece in thebeautiful rather than the sublime.But the piece is clearly not merely afrill, nor is it at all sentimental.

Burke's book is well argued andchallenging tothe modern reader.Give it a try! ... Read more

Book Description
The most enduring work of its time, Reflections on the Revolution in France was written in 1790 and has remained in print ever since. Edmund Burke's analysis of revolutionary change established him as the chief framer of modern European conservative political thought. This outstanding new edition of the Reflections presents Burke's famous text along with a historical introduction by Frank M. Turner and four lively critical essays by leading scholars.The volume sets the Reflections in the context of Western political thought, highlights its ongoing relevance to contemporary debates, and provides abundant critical notes, a glossary, and a glossary-index to ensure its accessibility. Contributors to the book examine various provocative aspects of Burke's thought. Conor Cruise O'Brien explores Burke's hostility to "theory," Darrin McMahon considers Burke's characterization of the French Enlightenment, Jack Rakove contrasts the views of Burke and American constitutional framers on the process of drawing up constitutions, and Alan Wolfe investigates Burke, the social sciences, and liberal democracy. ... Read more

Book Description
Now in a revised and expanded second edition, Optimal Muscle Recovery is a valuable training guide-a must-have for serious endurance athletes or anyone looking to train harder and recover faster. Author Ed Burke is one of the country's leading exercise physiologists, having worked with professional athletes such as runner Frank Shorter and Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

His recovery program, called the R4 System, is nothing short of revolutionary and has been touted as "breakthrough" research by leaders in athletics. New material includes recovery for the masters and strength athlete; the importance of sleep and nutrition in recovery; and the latest on supplements and sports drinks to aid in replenishment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good basic info on muscle recovery, but don't rely on as a sole source of information
I think there's some useful information in this book if you're interested in taking performance up a notch, but you have to take it with a grain of salt.As other reviewers have stated he does go on and on about his patented R4 system, but even if you're totally sold on it by the end of the book it's not like there's an R4 exercise recovery drink sitting next to the Gatorade on the supermarket shelves.

So ignore the R4 fluff, and focus in on what he has to say about muscle recovery in a general sense.The author presents some useful information on muscle recovery, and how your body needs an appropriate mix of carbs, electrolytes, and protein to properly recover from bouts of exercise.He also discusses other forms of helping muscles recover, such as massage therapy, but not in enough detail to be worthwhile.

His main focus in on endurance exercise, so don't expect to find a ton of information if you're doing weight training.

Recovery is Key to Athletic Performance
While it's true that parts of this book read like a commercial for the R4 System of recovery, there is plenty of material that will help an athlete learn how his or her body can recover more quickly between workouts. You can experiment with the recovery ideas presented by Burke and find which work for you and discard the ones that do not.

Don't buy this book...
The author goes on and on about the R4 recovery system, which is patented, of course you will find R4 attached to the name of an athletic recovery drink.

I bought this book, but wish I hadn't.It's a very long (and expensive) brochure for a product that I am certain the author has some sort of financial interest in.

Nothing too useful in here, nothing brilliant at all.

Sounds like advertising to me.
Maybe this book is accurate. Maybe.

I cannot find any other research studies on this topic, expect thru the "Endurox".

The author seems to think the only way to deliver his claims is thru a "sport drink" ... which he repeated so many times as to put a red flag up for me.

I did some research on the web, and found that the author has licensed the "R4" formula to the makers of the powered "Endurox". Of course, if it is in print, it must be true, right? =)

In any case, I would like to see results of a study not associated with the author or the powdered drink maker.

I am just a bit skeptical, but if it works, this may be a great thing for all of us.

Excellent explanation of the recovery process!
Have you ever finished an exercise that you didn't think was too hard and awoke the next day to find yourself sore?Have you ever had a really hard workout and planned for at least one day of being sore only to find yourself ready to go the next day?If you want probable answers to these questions, read this book.Burke offers a great explanation of what happens to your muscles during the stress and recovery phases of exercise, and offers great advice on how recover with the most efficiency.If you're interested in finding out more about the science of recovery, this is a must read. ... Read more

Book Description
This collection of essays shifts the focus of scholarly debate away from the themes that have traditionally dominated the study of Edmund Burke. In the past, largely ideology-based or highly textual studies have tended to paint Burke as a "prophet" or "precursor" of movements as diverse as conservatism, political pragmatism, and romanticism. In contrast, these essays address prominent issues in contemporary society-multiculturalism, the impact of postmodern and relativist methodologies, the boundaries of state-church relationships, and religious tolerance in modern societies-by emphasizing Burke's earlier career and writings and focusing on his position on historiography, moral philosophy, jurisprudence, aesthetics, and philosophical skepticism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

VERY BASIC
This is a VERY basic introduction.It is a large book and has a large number of beautiful color pics of the artwork, but when it comes to learning about art in my opinion this book is on a high-school level.This book introduces very general concepts of art history. ... Read more

Book Description
Edition first published in 1887. 2822 Kindle pages. According to Wikipedia: "Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with King George III and Great Britain that led to the American Revolution and for his strong opposition to the French Revolution... Burke also published philosophical works on aesthetics and founded the Annual Register, a political review. He is often regarded by conservatives as the Father of Anglo-American conservatism." ... Read more