The Portable Edmund Burke

Description

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.Introduction
Suggestions for Further Reading
A Note on the Selections

I. CULTURE AND HISTORY
The Reformer
A Notebook of Edmund Burke
A Vindication of Natural Society
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful
Fragment—An Essay Towards an History of the Laws of England
Book Reviews in the Annual Register
Speech on the Repeal of the Marriage Act
Speeches on Religious Establishment and Toleration

II. POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Thoughts on the Present Discontents
Speech on the Middlesex Elections
Speech at Mr. Burke’s Arrival in Bristol
Speech on Economical Reform
Speech on a Bill for Shortening the Duration of Parliaments
Speech on a Committee to Inquire into the State of the Representation of the Commons in Parliament
Sketch of a Negro Code
Thoughts and Details on Scarcity
A Letter to a Noble Lord

III. AMERICA AND REVOLUTION
An Account of the European Settlements in America
Observations on a Late Publication Entitled “The Present State of the Nation”
Speech on American Taxation
Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies
Address to the British Colonists in North America
A Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America

IV. IRELAND AND CATHOLICISM
Tract on the Popery Laws
Address at Bristol on the Gordon Riots and the Catholic Question
A Letter to a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws Against Irish Catholics
Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe
A Letter to Richard Burke, Esq., on Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland
A Letter to William Smith, Esq., on the Subject of Catholic Emancipation

V. INDIA AND COLONIALISM
Speech on Mr. Fox’s East India Bill
Speech on the Nabob of Arcot’s Debt
Speeches on the Impeachment of Warren Hastings

VI. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Speech on the Army Estimates
Reflections on the Revolution in France
An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs
Thoughts on French Affairs
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly
Letters on a Regicide Peace

VII. SELECTED LETTERS
To the Duke of Richmond
To William Burgh, Esq.
To the Marquis of Rockingham
To Mons. Dupont
To Philip Francis, Esq.
To Captain Mercer
To Chevalier de la Bintinnaye
To William Weddell, Esq.,
To William Elliot

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. A lifelong member of Parliament, Burke was the author of A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful, A Vindication of Natural Society, and Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Isaac Kramnick was born in 1938 and educated at Harvard University, where he received a B.A. degree in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1965, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, Yale and Cornell, where he is now Professor of Government. He is married to Miriam Brody Kramnick and lives in Ithaca, New York. Among his publications are Bolingbroke and His Circle, The Rage of Edmund Burke and numerous articles on eighteenth century topics. He has edited William Godwin’s Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, The Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and, with Michael Foot, The Thomas Paine Reader for the Penguin Classics. Most recently he is the author, with Barry Sheerman, MP, of Laski: A Lift on the Left.US

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