/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21580793]

I want to learn about Burkean conservatism. Where should I start?

[Anonymous No.21580797]

I would imagine Burke is a good place to start.

[Anonymous No.21580802]

>>21580793
His magnum opus is his reflection on the revolution in france. Funny thing about this book is that it's analogous to youtube videos on the culture war (response videos). Burke wrote his reflections then paine wrote the rights of man as a response to burkes book and burke himself was responding to a sermon made some priest with his reflection. I got the penguin classics edition and don't regret it.

[Anonymous No.21580822]

For a very general introduction to the Burkean way of thinking, as quintessentially conservative, try Russell Kirk.

For more nuance, "Burke and the Ancient Constitution," Pocock, isn't a bad place to start to get a sense of how his thought relates to the wider Atlantic political tradition. The problem with studying Burke is that so many people use him as an essential point of reference that you can "get by" just knowing and regurgitating commonplaces about him and his thought, so that's what many people do. Pocock's reading of the differences between the early and late Burke helps to dispel this "Burke as paragon of the perennial essence of Conservatism," reading of Burke and his significance for "conservative thought," as if both of these are self-evident.

Beyond that, try reading Stanlis' book on him (1992).

For Burkean conservatism, read any The Conservative Movement by Gottfried and Fleming (very short), and optionally Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, and The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism.