The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke

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.