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Edmund Burke: The First Conservative (2013)

av Jesse Norman

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
1753154,690 (3.79)5
Edmund Burke is both the greatest and the most underrated political thinker of the past three hundred years. A brilliant 18th-century Irish philosopher and statesman, Burke was a fierce champion of human rights and the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, and a lifelong campaigner against arbitrary power. Revered by great Americans including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Burke has been almost forgotten in recent years. But as politician and political philosopher Jesse Norman argues in this penetrating biography, we cannot understand modern politics without him. As Norman reveals, Burke was often ahead of his time, anticipating the abolition of slavery and arguing for free markets, equality for Catholics in Ireland, and responsible government in India, among many other things. He was not always popular in his own lifetime, but his ideas about power, community, and civic virtue have endured long past his death. Indeed, Burke engaged with many of the same issues politicians face today, including the rise of ideological extremism, the loss of social cohesion, the dangers of the corporate state, and the effects of revolution on societies. He offers us now a compelling critique of liberal individualism, and a vision of society based not on a self-interested agreement among individuals, but rather on an enduring covenant between generations. Burke won admirers in the American colonies for recognizing their fierce spirit of liberty and for speaking out against British oppression, but his greatest triumph was seeing through the utopian aura of the French Revolution. In repudiating that revolution, Burke laid the basis for much of the robust conservative ideology that remains with us to this day: one that is adaptable and forward-thinking, but also mindful of the debt we owe to past generations and our duty to preserve and uphold the institutions we have inherited. He is the first conservative. A rich, accessible, and provocative biography, Edmund Burke describes Burke's life and achievements alongside his momentous legacy, showing how Burke's analytical mind and deep capacity for empathy made him such a vital thinker--both for his own age, and for ours.… (mer)
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A remarkable book – or rather two books – about a remarkable man. In the first half of this work, Jesse Norman provides an engaging account of Burke's life and character; in the second he examines Burke's philosophy and its continued relevance. Edmund Burke, particularly the lucid second half, is a welcome volume that deserves to be read for decades to come. Highly recommended. ( )
  Lirmac | Nov 6, 2020 |
Pretty short and readable biography of Burke. The first half is biographical while the second is more concerned with his thoughts. In regards to the first Burke lead a pretty good life, refusing to profit off of his office, and working for good causes. He plead for more gracious treatment of Americans before the revolution, he tried to impeach Hastings, who headed the East Indian Company, for the treatment of Indians, and worked to emancipate catholics in Britain. He made major contributions to the concept of political parties, promoting them as stable institutions and repositories of wisdom that would not dissolve on political defeat but maintain an ideology. He did not seen them as factions but as training grounds for politicians, removing the total dependence of the state on the internal virtues of individual statesmen and core to the deliberative nature of politics. Burke also developed the "trustee" conception of a statesman, in a remarkable speech that he would not sacrifice his judgement for popularity with his constituents (eventually losing his seat when he promoted free trade policies in tension with his port city voters). In many ways Burke's life was rather tragic, he spent most of his political life in opposition, he was constantly accused of being a crypto-catholic, he had to bury his son just as his son was elected to office (apparently Burke considered suicide), and was deeply in debt for most of life (he considered fleeing to America to avoid debtors near the end of his life).

Of course, the book discusses Burke's most famous ideas in relation to the French Revolution. Burke was supportive of individual rights, but was against what he saw was abstracting those rights without regard to the historical development of those rights. Burke supported the American revolution as a recovery of traditional rights, while he disparaged the French revolution for razing their institutions and practices for abstract rights. Burke was famous for predicting the reign of terror, and rise of Napoleon in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. Burke was "anti-liberal" to the extent that he thought excessive focus on individuals as the unit of rights would be destructive. To him, it was nonsense to build society starting from individuals in a state of nature, individuals are inherently sociable creatures. The society shapes and constitutes individuals, and are not just vehicles for individuals seeking their goals. Burke was anti-rational to the extent that he believed that much of politics could never be reduced to a consistent science, but it would be safer to instead rely on the accumulated wisdom of the ages through a country's history and institutions.

The book drags at certain points, and I am not very interested in UK politics, but overall a good introduction to Burke. Has definitely made me want to read Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France and does a good job summarizing a complex figure. ( )
  vhl219 | Jun 1, 2019 |
A good look at the life and philosophy of the 18th-century politician Edmund Burke. I really appreciated the first half of the work, detailing Burke's life and major political endeavors. In the last half, primarily about Burke's thought and writings, I felt like I could really see the author's day job as a conservative MP coming through. I did like how Burke was tied to other Enlightenment figures, such as Rousseau, and the focus on how Burke is relevant today, but sometimes these pieces felt a little forced and overreaching. Overall, a good overview of a subject I hope to read more about. ( )
  wagner.sarah35 | Jan 19, 2019 |
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The great revolutions of history typically produce written works celebrating their achievement. The French Revolution, however, was immortalized by a denunciation. Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" appeared in 1790, when Britons were still welcoming the Revolution as a blow to Bourbon tyranny. Burke's dissent has resounded through the ages. . . .

Mr. Norman is a theorist of "compassionate conservatism," an outlook adopted by British Prime Minister David Cameron and anticipated by George W. Bush. Burke's thought certainly has its uses for those who prefer their conservatism "kinder and gentler." Mr. Norman, unfortunately, tries to demonstrate Burke's "relevance" with chapters of trendy social science. There is something small in reading Burke as the forerunner of popular sociologists such as David Brooks and Robert Putnam. Society may be, as Mr. Norman asserts, a "relational and networked" scramble for "social capital" requiring a version of Burkean attachments. But such dreary tropes diminish the power of Burke's thought.

The biographical sections of "Edmund Burke: The First Conservative," though derivative, are well written and informative. In this history one discovers Burke's continuing importance, even if our age of hyper-individualism and headlong social experimentation seems ill-suited to his genius. Burke died in 1797 in defeat, shattered by the death of his last son, aghast at the still-cresting power of revolutionary France. He requested an unmarked grave, lest invading Jacobins defile his corpse. But his ideas survived their revolution.
 
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Edmund Burke is both the greatest and the most underrated political thinker of the past three hundred years. A brilliant 18th-century Irish philosopher and statesman, Burke was a fierce champion of human rights and the Anglo-American constitutional tradition, and a lifelong campaigner against arbitrary power. Revered by great Americans including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Burke has been almost forgotten in recent years. But as politician and political philosopher Jesse Norman argues in this penetrating biography, we cannot understand modern politics without him. As Norman reveals, Burke was often ahead of his time, anticipating the abolition of slavery and arguing for free markets, equality for Catholics in Ireland, and responsible government in India, among many other things. He was not always popular in his own lifetime, but his ideas about power, community, and civic virtue have endured long past his death. Indeed, Burke engaged with many of the same issues politicians face today, including the rise of ideological extremism, the loss of social cohesion, the dangers of the corporate state, and the effects of revolution on societies. He offers us now a compelling critique of liberal individualism, and a vision of society based not on a self-interested agreement among individuals, but rather on an enduring covenant between generations. Burke won admirers in the American colonies for recognizing their fierce spirit of liberty and for speaking out against British oppression, but his greatest triumph was seeing through the utopian aura of the French Revolution. In repudiating that revolution, Burke laid the basis for much of the robust conservative ideology that remains with us to this day: one that is adaptable and forward-thinking, but also mindful of the debt we owe to past generations and our duty to preserve and uphold the institutions we have inherited. He is the first conservative. A rich, accessible, and provocative biography, Edmund Burke describes Burke's life and achievements alongside his momentous legacy, showing how Burke's analytical mind and deep capacity for empathy made him such a vital thinker--both for his own age, and for ours.

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