 | |
| Author | Russell Kirk |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Political philosophy · Intellectual history |
| Publisher | Henry Regnery Company |
Publication date | 1953 |
| Publication place | The United States |
| Pages | 448 |
The Conservative Mind is a book by Americanconservative philosopherRussell Kirk. It was first published in 1953 as Kirk's doctoral dissertation and has since gone into seven editions, the later ones with the subtitleFromBurke toEliot. It traces the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas ofEdmund Burke.
The work is a classic in the intellectual tradition of conservatism. It influenced the postwar conservative movement in the United States and revived 20th century Burkean thought. It has been translated to a number of languages such as Bulgarian, Czech, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Portuguese.[1]
InThe Conservative Mind, Kirk developed six canons of conservatism:
In addition to bringing attention to Anglo-American conservative principles, Kirk described his perception of liberal ideals in the first chapter: the perfectibility of man, hostility towards tradition, rapid change in economic and political systems, and the secularization of government. Kirk also argued that the American Revolution was "a conservative reaction, in the English political tradition, against royal innovation."[3]
The work also draws attention to:
The Conservative Mind hardly mentions economics at all. Kirk grounded his Burkean conservatism in tradition, political philosophy,belles lettres, and religious faith, rather thanfree market economic reasoning.
Many commentators have praisedThe Conservative Mind.Whittaker Chambers called it the most important book of the 20th century.[4]James J. Kilpatrick called it the best and clearest exposition of the conservative philosophy.David Frum described it as follows:
A profound critique of contemporary mass society, and a vivid and poetic image – not a program, an image – of how that society might better itself. […] in important respects, the twentieth century's own version of [Edmund Burke's]Reflections on the Revolution in France. […] Kirk was an artist, a visionary, almost a prophet.[5]
By tracing an intellectual heritage from Edmund Burke to theOld Right in the early 1950s,The Conservative Mind challenged the notion among intellectuals that no coherent conservative tradition existed in the United States.[6]
BiographerBradley J. Birzer argues that for all his importance in inspiring the modern conservative movement, not many of his followers agreed with his unusual approach to the history of conservatism. As summarized by reviewer Drew Maciag:
Kirk's understanding of conservatism was so unique, idiosyncratic, transcendental, elitist, and in certain respects premodern and European, that it bore little resemblance to politicalconservatism in the United States.Conservative Mind successfully launched an intellectual challenge to postwarliberalism, but the variety of conservatism Kirk preferred found few takers, even within the American Right.[7]
