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Title: Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, L. G. Mitchell ISBN: 0-19-283978-0 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Why aren't there more books like this these days?
Comment: An international political classic. Burke does uses his feelings on philosophy and politics in such a brilliant matter as to suggest it were merely a letter "written to a gentleman."
Highly recommended to Pol. Sci. majors, Conservatives, Liberals without pens/tongues, etc etc.
5 STARS for classic philosphy.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reflections on the Revolution in France: (Penguin Classics)
Comment: Reflections on the Revolution in France written by Edmund Burke and Edited with an introduction by Conor Cruise O'Brien the Penguin Classics version is the best version of this unparalleled powerful work. The reason for this is that included in this version you have an introduction that gets the reader upto speed. For Burke is without doubt the foremost conservative British political thinkers of his time, (1729-1797).
There is a biographical note on Edmund Burke right after the introduction giving the reader a historical perspective into who is Edmund Burke and why his advice was sought after with regard to the French Revolution and the consequenses of its following. Unlike the United States, France had an established entrenched government, so any change in form of government meant that an upheavel of property, religion, and traditional French institutions would have to occur. Underlying the French Revolution was the latent Catholic Cause which being Irish Burke had a good deal of sympathy.
Burke's Reflections written in 1790 was a really good prediction of the events pretaining to the Reign of Terror experienced by the French. This edition of Edmund Burke's "Reflection on the Revolution in France" has well explained footnotes further giving the reader a much greater appreciation for the practical wisdom of Burke. Burke was a man who would've rather seen a gradual or piecemeal reform as opposed to a revolution as he was sceptical in his belief in expediency.
Another plus for this edition, in contrast to the others available, is that there is a well appointed "Notes" at the end of Burke's writing. Also, at the very end of this book you'll have a recommended reading list, which for those inclined is indispensable. By far this edition is well worth reading and great care has been given to bring this important work in a form that is easily understandable, with enough detail to make it interesting reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: "The Wild Gas" ... let loose...
Comment: I personally find, overall, that other persons writing
about and analyzing Burke and his views tend to be a bit
more interesting and compelling, than Burke himself in
his prose.
I do not consider myself a "conservative" -- in the
sense that that is a political agenda or mindset, nor
a reactionary. There is much in academics and political
philosophy which tends to want to damn by labels -- and
by putting ideas into boxes, filing, and forgetting...rather
than listening to, or thoughtfully considering.
One can believe in classic values, and find his
grounding in classical philosophy without being a
rigid reactionary or even a doctrinaire conservative.
So, when Burke speaks with the speech of the
Ancients and espouses classical warnings and
remonstrances about the necessity of restraint
and careful consideration, one can agree with him.
And, as the editor and author of the "Introduction"
to the Penguin Classics edition, Conor Cruise O'Brien,
points out, there is that of the prophet in Burke as
well, since he published these REFLECTIONS in 1790,
before the Reign of Terror in 1793, yet he correctly
foresees the excesses to which the French Revolution
will proceed in its unchecked course.
One of the best quotes which I like very much from
this work follows:
"When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see
a strong principle at work; and this, for a while,
is all I can possibly know of it. The wild GAS, the
fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to
suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is
a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and
until we see something deeper than the agitation of
a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably
sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men
upon a blessing, that they have really received one.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver;
and adulation is not of more service to the people
than to kings. I should therefore suspend my
congratulations on the new liberty of France, until
I was informed how it had been combined with
government; with public force; with the discipline
and obedience of armies; with the collection of an
effective and well-distributed revenue; with morality
and religion; with the solidity of property; with
peace and order: with civil and social MANNERS. All
these (in their way) are good things too; and, without
them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and
is not likely to continue long."
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Title: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville, Richard D. Heffner ISBN: 0451528123 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 05 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Leviathan (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Hobbes, T. Hobbs, C. B. MacPherson ISBN: 0140431950 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: June, 1982 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Anatomy of Revolution by Crane Brinton ISBN: 0394700449 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 August, 1965 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Bismarck and the German Empire by Erich Eyck ISBN: 0393002357 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 1964 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Rights of Man by Thomas Paine ISBN: 0486408930 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 23 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.00 |
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