The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautiful to American Independence - Hardcover

David Bromwich

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674729706 ISBN 13: 9780674729704

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2014

Synopsis

David Bromwich's portrait of statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is the first biography to attend to the complexity of Burke's thought as it emerges in both the major writings and private correspondence. The public and private writings cannot be easily dissociated, nor should they be. For Burke--a thinker, writer, and politician--the principles of politics were merely those of morality enlarged. Bromwich reads Burke's career as an imperfect attempt to organize an honorable life in the dense medium he knew politics to be. This intellectual biography examines the first three decades of Burke's professional life. His protest against the cruelties of English society and his criticism of all unchecked power laid the groundwork for his later attacks on abuses of government in India, Ireland, and France. Bromwich allows us to see the youthful skeptic, wary of a social contract based on "nature"; the theorist of love and fear in relation to "the sublime and beautiful"; the advocate of civil liberty, even in the face of civil disorder; the architect of economic reform; and the agitator for peace with America. However multiple and various Burke's campaigns, a single-mindedness of commitment always drove him. Burke is commonly seen as the father of modern conservatism. Bromwich reveals the matter to be far more subtle and interesting. Burke was a defender of the rights of disfranchised minorities and an opponent of militarism. His politics diverge from those of any modern party, but all parties would be wiser for acquaintance with his writing and thoughts.

About this title

Review:

"The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke "shows, in a very enlightening way, how Burke returns over and over to the theme of the relations between a politician and 'the people' and the gradual hardening of his insistence that while popular views must be taken account of, they must not determine how a conscientious politician acts. Bromwich reads Burke with care and depth and displays a range of learning and insights. His approach to Burke as a moralist in public life is original. --Peter Marshall, editor of "The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vols. V-VII"

The probing and subtle first volume of David Bromwich s The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke helps us glimpse the sources of Burke s surprising longevity. Bromwich begins by offering sharply intelligent readings of the two books. [...] Bromwich s biography promises to be the fullest and most responsibly sensitive account of both Burke s consistency and his ductility that we will ever have. --Standpoint

Jesse Norman, a Tory MP and recent biographer of Burke, calls him the father of conservatism. So a reappraisal of his early works is welcome. David Bromwich, a professor at Yale University, has written a history of Burke s thought until American independence; a more liberal Burke emerges from this book. --The Economist

Burke is the man to turn to if you think that something has gone wrong with politics and political man. [...] In this sense, David Bromwich s contribution is timely. It is not, as the author himself insists, yet another biography. Rather, it is an attempt to discover what it meant to think like Edmund Burke . [...] David Bromwich, by concentrating on texts, offers no explanation for [Burke s personal trajectory]. Why should he? His work is an able exposition of Burke on the page, not Burke at the dinner table or Burke among friends. It is, therefore, more a book for the political scientist than the historian. Burke reacted to particular events in order to point up vernal propositions in politics. To avoid the challenges he presents may ultimately be our loss. --Literary Review

Burke is the man to turn to if you think that something has gone wrong with politics and political man. [...] In this sense, David Bromwich s contribution is timely. It is not, as the author himself insists, yet another biography. Rather, it is an attempt to discover what it meant to think like Edmund Burke . [...] David Bromwich, by concentrating on texts, offers no explanation for [Burke s personal trajectory]. Why should he? His work is an able exposition of Burke on the page, not Burke at the dinner table or Burke among friends. It is, therefore, more a book for the political scientist than the historian. Burke reacted to particular events in order to point up vernal propositions in politics. To avoid the challenges he presents may ultimately be our loss. --Literary Review

Jesse Norman, a Tory MP and recent biographer of Burke, calls him the father of conservatism. So a reappraisal of his early works is welcome. David Bromwich, a professor at Yale University, has written a history of Burke s thought until American independence; a more liberal Burke emerges from this book. --The Economist

David Bromwich s aim in The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke is that people should know a good deal more about what Burke actually said and wrote...Bromwich s patient and subtle exposition is a continuing delight... The book is not intended as a guide to Burke s personal and family life or to the ups and downs of his political career. It just tells the reader what Burke thought and why he thought it." --London Review of Booksbrilliant first volume ...

Bromwich s intellectual acuity provides key insights into how aesthetics and politics fused -- Irish Times

Jesse Norman, a Tory MP and recent biographer of Burke, calls him the father of conservatism. So a reappraisal of his early works is welcome. David Bromwich, a professor at Yale University, has written a history of Burke s thought until American independence; a more liberal Burke emerges from this book. --The Economist

About the Author:

David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0674729706
• ISBN 13: 9780674729704
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512