The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

Russell Kirk

Regnery Publishing, Sep 1, 2001 - Social Science - 534 pages

The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk is arguably one of the greatest contributions to twentieth-century American Conservatism. Brilliant in every respect, from its conception to its choice of significant figures representing the history of intellectual conservatism, The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk launched the modern American Conservative Movement. A must-read.

Contents

• The Idea of Conservatism: 3
• Burke and the Politics of Prescription: 12
• 2 The radical system: 23
• 3 Providence and veneration: 28
• 4 Prejudice and prescription: 37
• 5 The rights of civil social man: 47
• 6 Equality and aristocracy: 58
• 7 The principle of order: 64
• John Adams and Liberty Under Law: 71
• 2 Alexander Hamilton: 75
• 3 Fisher Ames vaticinations: 80
• 4 John Adams as psychologist: 86
• 5 The aristocracy of nature: 93
• 6 American constitutions: 98
• 7 Marshall and the metamorphosis of federalism: 110
• Romantics and Utilitarians: 114
• 2 Canning and enlightened conservatism: 124
• 3 Coleridge and conservative ideas: 133
• 4 The triumph of abstraction: 146
• Southern Conservatism Randolph and Calhoun: 150
• 2 Randolph on the peril of positive legislation: 155
• Calhoun: 168
• 4 The valor of the South: 181
• Liberal Conservatives Macaulay Cooper Tocqueville: 185
• 2 Macaulay on democracy: 188
• 3 Fenimore Cooper and a gentlemans America: 197
• 4 Tocqueville on democratic despotism: 204
• 5 Democratic prudence: 216
• Transitional Conservatism New England Sketches: 225
• his aspirations and his failure: 231
• 3 The illusions of transcendentalism: 240
• 4 Brownson on the conservative power of Catholicism: 245
• society and sin: 250
• Conservatism with Imagination Disraeli and Newman: 260
• 2 Disraeli and Tory loyalties: 266
• the sources of knowledge and the idea of education: 279
• Bagehot: 294
• Legal and Historical Conservatism a Time of Foreboding: 298
• 2 Stephen on the ends of life and politics: 304
• status and contract: 315
• illiberal democracy: 327
• Conservatism Frustrated America 18651918: 337
• 2 James Russell Lowells perplexities: 341
• 3 Godkin on democratic opinion: 348
• 4 Henry Adams on the degradation of the democratic dogma: 356
• 5 Brooks Adams and a world of terrible energies: 366
• English Conservatism Adrift the Twentieth Century: 375
• 2 George Gissing and the Nether World: 380
• his spiritual conservatism and the tide of socialism: 387
• a conservative synthesis: 396
• 5 A dreary conservatism between wars: 410
• Critical Conservatism Babbitt More Santayana: 415
• the higher will in a democracy: 419
• 3 Paul Elmer More on justice and faith: 432
• 4 George Santayana buries liberalism: 443
• 5 America in search of ideas: 453
• Conservatives Promise: 457
• 2 The new elite: 466
• 3 Scholar confronts intellectual: 475
• 4 The conservative as poet: 491
• NOTES: 503
• A Select Bibliography: 515
• INDEX: 525

About the author

Russell Kirk (1918-1994), the father of intellectual conservatism in America, was the author of more than thirty books, including The Conservative Mind, Eliot and His Age, and The Roots of American Order. His legacy lives on in the work of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, based at his ancestral home in Mecosta, Michigan.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot; ACLS Humanities E-Book; History e-book project
• Author: Russell Kirk
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing, 2001
• ISBN: 0895261715, 9780895261717
• Length: 534 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / General