The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk (2001)

As the title implies, Kirk’s is a book about conservatives and conservative thought. It explores the development and maturation of the different minds in the stream of conservative thought, beginning with the man who is as near the heart of modern conservatism as Augustine is to the heart of Medieval thought: Edmund Burke. Kirk, himself a profoundly influenced by Burke, examines those within the Burkean strain of conservative thought up through the Twentieth-century.

Basic, yet profound, ideas, such as the belief in a sinful human nature and a faith in Providence are core to the corpus of conservatism. Indeed, Burke, true to his Christian faith, defended these dogmas from the ideological revolutionary spirit that was embodied by the France of his day. Against vain and unsound ideas as the perfectibility of man and man autonomous from the Divine did Burke write. While conservatives concerned themselves with more than these two ideas, they are the bedrock of this conservatism upheld by Burke and passed on to those who would come after him. While some conservatives may disagree with one of these two points, rejecting them both is to reject conservatism.

John Adams, Kirk notes, labored against the secular doctrines of human perfectibility. Calhoun understood that power will only corrupt man’s weak nature. Coleridge understood both that Providence has a hand in human affairs. Coleridge, along with his contemporaries, Sir Walter Scott and Canning, held off the liberal “reforms” of the utilitarian Benthamites, who sought to impose their calculustic principles on English society. Tocqueville, the insightful biographer of American democracy, understood that Providence was at work in the United States. Even Irving Babbitt understood that many problems in the West could not be resolved without “something like the doctrine of original sin.”

The role of original sin and Providence is key to conservative thought, as they serve to link man with the past and the present. Original sin reminds us of our fathers, back all the way to our first father, Adam. Providence also helps us understand our connection with the past, but also connects us with the future. The Divine Plan is going somewhere, and a man in the present is only one part of that plan that started long before him, and will likely continue after he expires. History is the “unfolding of design.” Both serve to keep us humble and force us to recognize our limitations and dependence upon God. This is why the true conservative affirms these positions. ( )

Great book helped spark interest in the conservative movement in America. ( )