Political Theory

Liberty, Conservation, and Reform in the Thought of Edmund Burke

ABSTRACT

Conferees explored the relationship between liberty and reform in the thought of Edmund Burke, who defended constitutionalism, rule of law, and the importance of separation of powers while rejecting imperialism, mercantilism, and the worst excesses of protectionist policies.

READING LIST

From Liberty Fund

Select Works of Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France

by By Edmund Burke
Compiled and with a Foreword and Notes by Francis Canavan

Originally published by Oxford University Press in the 1890s, the famed three-volume Payne edition of Select Works is universally revered by students of English history and political thought. Faithfully reproduced in each volume are E. J. Payne’s notes and introductory essays. Francis Canavan, one of the great Burke scholars of…

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Further Reflections on the Revolution in France

by By Edmund Burke
Edited by Daniel E. Ritchie

In his famous Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Edmund Burke excoriated French revolutionary leaders for recklessly destroying France’s venerable institutions and way of life. But his war against the French intelligentsia did not end there, and Burke continued to take pen in hand against the Jacobins until his…

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Select Works of Edmund Burke: Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and The Two Speeches on America

by By Edmund Burke
Compiled and with a Foreword and Notes by Francis Canavan

This famed Payne edition of Select Works of Edmund Burke is universally revered by students of English history and political thought.

Volume 1, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and The Two Speeches on America, contains Burke’s brilliant defense of the American colonists’ complaints of British policy, including…

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Additional Readings

Burke, Edmund. Select Works of Edmund Burke, Volume 4: Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by and compiled by Francis Canavan. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1999.

Burke, Edmund. Burke’s Politics: Selected Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke on Reform, Revolution, and War. Edited by Ross J. S. Hoffman and Paul Levack. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.