Download or read book Edmund Burke written by Jesse Norman and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative biography of Edmund Burke, the underappreciated founder of modern conservatism 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. Once revered by an array of 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, responsible government in India, and more. 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.thread on pub day of what people at basic like about it (editors) "You won't find a more impressive political philosopher than the 18th-century MP who more or less invented Anglosphere conservatism. And you won't find a pithier, more readable treatise on his life and works than this one." --Wall Street Journal

Download or read book Adam Smith written by Jesse Norman and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dazzlingly original, "remarkable" account of the life and thought of legendary economist Adam Smith (Financial Times). Adam Smith (1723-1790) is now widely regarded as the greatest economist of all time. But what he really thought, and the implications of his ideas, remain fiercely contested. Was he an eloquent advocate of capitalism and individual freedom? A prime mover of "market fundamentalism"? An apologist for human selfishness? Or something else entirely? In the tradition of The Worldly Philosophers, Adam Smith dispels the myths and caricatures, and provides a far more complex portrait of the man. Offering a highly engaging account of Smith's life and times, political philosopher Jesse Norman explores his work as a whole and traces his influence over two centuries to the present day. Finally, he shows how a proper understanding of Smith can help us address the problems of modern capitalism. The Smith who emerges from this book is not only the greatest of all economists but a pioneering theorist of moral philosophy, culture, and society.

Download or read book Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke s Political Economy written by Gregory M. Collins and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Edmund Burke's economic thought through his understanding of commerce in wider social, imperial, and ethical contexts.

Download or read book On the Wealth of Nations written by Ian Simpson Ross and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1998 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Key Issues series aims to make available the contemporary responses that met important books and debates on their first appearance. These take the form of journal articles, book extracts, public letters, sermons and pamphlets which provides an insight into the historical relevance and the social and political context in which a publication or particular topic emerged. Each volume brings together some of the key responses to the works.

Download or read book A Turn to Empire written by Jennifer Pitts and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-11 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears. Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments.

Download or read book ECONOMIC SENTIMENTS written by Emma Rothschild and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-04 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A benchmark in the history of economics and of political ideas, Rothschild shows us the origins of laissez-faire economic thought and its relation to political conseratism in an unquiet world.

Download or read book The Theory of Moral Sentiments written by Adam Smith and published by . This book was released on 1761 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Great Debate written by Yuval Levin and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An acclaimed portrait of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the origins of modern conservatism and liberalism In The Great Debate, Yuval Levin explores the roots of the left/right political divide in America by examining the views of the men who best represented each side at its origin: Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Striving to forge a new political path in the tumultuous age of the American and French revolutions, these two ideological titans sparred over moral and philosophical questions about the nature of political life and the best approach to social change: radical and swift, or gradual and incremental. The division they articulated continues to shape our political life today. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the basis of our political order and Washington's acrimonious rifts today, The Great Debate offers a profound examination of what conservatism, progressivism, and the debate between them truly amount to.

Download or read book Thoughts and Details on Scarcity written by Edmund Burke and published by . This book was released on 1800 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Edmund Burke and the Invention of Modern Conservatism 1830 1914 written by Emily Jones and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1830 and 1914 in Britain a dramatic modification of the reputation of Edmund Burke (1730-1797) occurred. Burke, an Irishman and Whig politician, is now most commonly known as the "founder of modern conservatism" - an intellectual tradition which is also deeply connected to the identity of the British Conservative Party. The idea of "Burkean conservatism"--a political philosophy which upholds "the authority of tradition," the organic, historic conception of society, and the necessity of order, religion, and property--has been incredibly influential both in international academic analysis and in the wider political world. This is a highly significant intellectual construct, but its origins have not yet been understood. This volume demonstrates, for the first time, that the transformation of Burke into the "founder of conservatism" was in fact part of wider developments in British political, intellectual, and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing from a wide range of sources, including political texts, parliamentary speeches, histories, biographies, and educational curricula, Edmund Burke and the Invention of Modern Conservatism shows how and why Burke's reputation was transformed over a formative period of British history. In doing so, it bridges the significant gap between the history of political thought as conventionally understood and the history of the making of political traditions. The result is to demonstrate that, by 1914, Burke had been firmly established as a "conservative" political philosopher and was admired and utilized by political Conservatives in Britain who identified themselves as his intellectual heirs. This was one essential component of a conscious re-working of C/conservatism which is still at work today.

Download or read book In Defense of Andrew Jackson written by Bradley J. Birzer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "He was a man of the frontier, self-made but appreciative of those who gave him their loyalty and support. He was, pure and simple, and American..." He was controversial in his time—and even more controversial in our own. Indian fighter, ardent patriot, hero of the War of 1812, the very embodiment of America’s democratic and frontier spirit, Andrew Jackson was an iconic figure. Today, Jackson is criticized and reviled – condemned as a slave-owner, repudiated as the president who dispatched the Indians down the “Trail of Tears,” dropped with embarrassment by the Democratic Party, and demanded by many to be removed from the twenty-dollar bill. Who is the real Andrew Jackson? The beloved Old Hickory whom Americans once revered? Or the villain who has become a prime target of the Social Justice Warriors? Using letters, diaries, newspaper columns, and notes, historian Bradley Birzer provides a fresh and enlightening perspective on Jackson —unvarnished, true to history, revealing why President Donald Trump sees Andrew Jackson as a political role model, and illustrating the strong parallels between the anxieties of Jacksonian America and the anxieties of the "Hillbilly Elegy" voting bloc of today. In this brilliant new book, Bradley Birzer makes the case that Jackson was… The epitome of the American frontier republican. Passionately devoted to individual liberty. A staunch proponent of Christian morality. Not only dedicated but also vital to the preservation of the Union. A significant and influential role model to President Donald J. Trump. In Defense of Andrew Jackson sets the record straight on our seventh president, revealing a radically new but historically accurate perspective on Jackson. “I’m not an Andrew Jackson fan, but I’m definitely a Bradley Birzer fan. His case for Old Hickory is as strong as any I’ve seen and deserves to be reckoned with.”- THOMAS E. WOODS JR., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. “Most discussion of Andrew Jackson falls into predictable ruts, defaulting automatically to clichés that reflect more on our own time than his. Whether America is entering another ‘Jacksonian’ period depends upon understanding the first one more clearly, and we have Bradley Birzer to thank for taking up a spirited defense of this complicated man and his legacy.” - STEVEN F. HAYWARD, author of The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution 1980-1989. “Liberal revisionists have pounded Andrew Jackson down to the point where Democrats are ashamed to admit he founded their party. In Defense of Andrew Jackson sets the record straight on America’s first populist president.” - JAMES S. ROBBINS, author of Erasing America: Losing Our Future by Destroying Our Past. “As a man and a military hero, Andrew Jackson is as American as they come. But in this timely biography, Bradley Birzer has managed to peel back layers of cliché and reveal our seventh president as a more complex human being than current textbooks allow.” - GLEAVES WHITNEY, director of Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

Download or read book Edmund Burke written by Stephen K. White and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2002 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edmund Burke: Modernity, Politics, and Aesthetics examines the philosophy of Burke in view of its contribution to our understanding of modernity. Stephen K. White argues that Burke shows us how modernity engenders an implicit forgetfulness of human finitude. White illustrates this theme by showing how Burke's political thought, his judgment of the 'modern system of morality and policy, ' and its taste for a 'false sublime' are structured by his aesthetics

Download or read book American Cicero written by Bradley J. Birzer and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristocrat. Catholic. Patriot. Founder. Before his death in 1832, Charles Carroll of Carrollton—the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence—was widely regarded as one of the most important Founders. Today, Carroll’s signal contributions to the American Founding are overlooked, but the fascinating new biography American Cicero rescues Carroll from unjust neglect. Drawing on his considerable study of Carroll’s published and unpublished writings, historian Bradley J. Birzer masterfully captures a man of supreme intellect, imagination, integrity, and accomplishment. Born a bastard, Carroll nonetheless became the best educated (and wealthiest) Founder. The Marylander’s insight, Birzer shows, allowed him to recognize the necessity of independence from Great Britain well before most other Founders. Indeed, Carroll’s analysis of the situation in the colonies in the run-up to the Revolution was original and brilliant—yet almost all historians have ignored it. Reflecting his classical and liberal education, the man who would be called “The Last of the Romans” advocated a proper understanding of the American Revolution as deeply rooted in the Western tradition. Carroll even left his mark on the U.S. Constitution despite not assuming his elected position to the Constitutional Convention: by inspiring the creation of the U.S. Senate. American Cicero ably demonstrates how Carroll’s Catholicism was integral to his thought. Oppressed because of his faith—Maryland was the most anti-Catholic of the original thirteen colonies—Carroll became the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and helped legitimize Catholicism in the young American republic. What’s more, Birzer brilliantly reassesses the most controversial aspects of Charles Carroll: his aristocratic position and his critiques of democracy. As Birzer shows, Carroll’s fears of extreme democracy had ancient and noble roots, and his arguments about the dangers of democracy influenced Alexis de Tocqueville’s magisterial work Democracy in America. American Cicero reveals why Founders such as John Adams assumed that Charles Carroll would one day be considered among the greats—and also why history has largely forgotten him.

Download or read book The Mind and the Market written by Jerry Z. Muller and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2003-11-11 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capitalism has never been a subject for economists alone. Philosophers, politicians, poets and social scientists have debated the cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism for centuries, and their claims have been many and diverse. The Mind and the Market is a remarkable history of how the idea of capitalism has developed in Western thought. Ranging across an ideological spectrum that includes Hobbes, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and Matthew Arnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, and neoliberal intellectuals, historian Jerry Muller examines a fascinating thread of ideas about the ramifications of capitalism and its future implications. This is an engaging and accessible history of ideas that reverberate throughout everyday life.

Download or read book The Infidel and the Professor written by Dennis C. Rasmussen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dearest friends -- The cheerful skeptic (1711-1749) -- Encountering Hume (1723-1749) -- A budding friendship (1750-1754) -- The historian and the Kirk (1754-1759) -- Theorizing the moral sentiments (1759) -- Fêted in France (1759-1766) -- Quarrel with a wild philosopher (1766-1767) -- Mortally sick at sea (1767-1775) -- Inquiring into the Wealth of Nations (1776) -- Dialoguing about natural religion (1776) -- A philosopher's death (1776) -- Ten times more abuse (1776-1777) -- Smith's final years in Edinburgh (1777-1790) -- Hume's My Own Life and Smith's Letter from Adam Smith, LL. D. to William Strahan, Esq

Download or read book An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations written by Adam Smith and published by . This book was released on 1822 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Adam Smith written by E. G. West and published by Indianapolis : Liberty Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, was no dry pedant. His lectures and writings are alive with examples taken from the busy eighteenth-century world around him, and Edmund Burke praised his literary style as "rather painting than writing." It was Adam Smith who taught moral philosophy and literary criticism to Boswell at the University of Glasgow, and in Smith's works we follow his interests from political history to law, sociology, economic and social history, philosophy, and English literature. E. G. West brings to life Adam Smith's first years in the bustling Scottish seaport of Kirkcaldy (and recounts Smith's brief kidnapping, as a baby, by gypsies). We follow young Smith as a student, watch his thought develop as Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, and enjoy with him the hospitality of David Hume, the Parisian literary salons, Johnson, Burke, Gibbon, and other giants of the era. West gives us a masterful summary of The Wealth of Nations. Even more significant, West restores to eminence an earlier work of Smith's, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. "If The Wealth of Nations had never been written," he asserts, "this previous work would have earned for him a prominent place in intellectual history." West takes particular delight in using The Theory of Moral Sentiments to rebut Marx's assumptions about laissez-faire capitalism. E. G. West was educated at the University College of Exeter, graduating in economics in 1948. He has taught at several British colleges and at Carleton University in Ottawa, and has been a visiting research scholar at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley and a visiting professor at the Center for Study of Public Choice, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. West authored several books including Education and the State and Education and the Industrial Revolution. His articles have appeared in numerous periodicals and scholarly journals.