Sign in  |  Register

The New Criterion

It operates as a refuge for a civilizing element in short supply in contemporary America: honest criticism
- The Wall Street Journal

Features

February 2009

Reflections on Burke's Reflections

by Gertrude Himmelfarb

Revisiting the lasting, provocative wisdom of Edmund Burke.

Edmund Burke was, and still is, a provocative thinker—a provocation in his own day, as in ours. At a time when most right-minded (which is to say, left-inclined) English literati were rhapsodizing over the French Revolution—Wordsworth declaring what “bliss was it in that dawn to be alive”—Burke wrote his Reflections on the Revolution in France, a searing indictment of the Revolution. He was accused then, as he often is now, of being excessive, even hysterical, in his account of the Revolution:

a ferocious dissoluteness in manners, an insolent irreligion in opinions and practices, … laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without vigor, commerce expiring … a church pillaged … civil and military anarchy … national bankruptcy.

All this, one must remember (it is sometimes hard to remember) ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase

Subscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions)

Subscribe to TNC (Online only)

Purchase article credit and clip this article

If you already have an account login first

Gertrude Himmelfarb is the author of the forthcoming The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, From Cromwell to Churchill (Encounter Books).


more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 27 February 2009, on page 4

Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Reflections-on-Burke-s--i-Reflections-i--4004
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend


The New Criterion

By the author

Lionel Trilling & the critical imagination

by Gertrude Himmelfarb

On the critic's “moral realism”.

You might also enjoy

Christopher, for better & for worse

by Peter Collier

On the critic, polemicist & raconteur Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011).

Let's tickle the ivories

by David Dubal

On the joys of playing the piano.

Most popular

view more >

The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices

Webcasts

Anthony Daniels on the Euro Crisis
The New Criterion author Anthony Daniels delivers remarks in New York City about the "European experiment." With an introduction by editor Roger Kimball. Recorded on November 30, 2011.


Andrew C. McCarthy: The Muslim Threat
The New Criterion contributor Andrew C. McCarthy delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the threat of Islamism to the United States. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces McCarthy to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.


Roger Kimball: The Grim Future of Statism
The New Criterion editor Roger Kimball delivers remarks in Effingham, Illinois, about the future of statism and The New Criterion's 30th anniversary. A Friend of The New Criterion, Dwight Erskine, introduces Roger Kimball to the Effingham audience. Recorded on October 1, 2011.