Review by Choice Review
Norman, a British Conservative Party MP, has written an accessible, comprehensive, and instructive study of Burke. Burke's biography is canvassed through his participation in five great political battles that mark his political and intellectual career, beginning with his fight for fair treatment of Catholics in Ireland and colonial rights in North America, and ending with his epic campaign against the French Revolution. The second half of the book steps back to assess Burke's political thought that Norman says is situated at the "hinge of our political modernity": Burke combined an acute Enlightenment concern about the oppression of the weak (slaves, East Indians, colonists) with hostility to unencumbered reason and liberal individualism as foundations for political life. The British Constitution and the common law that guided Burke's thought expressed and protected a distinct moral community that linked generations and institutions, individuals and society, the quotidian and the transcendent. Today Burke remains a worthy guide to help recover values lost or threatened by extreme liberalism. Norman's Burke receives ratification by sociologist Philip Selznick, The Moral Commonwealth (1994), and political philosopher Michael Sandel, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1998). Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, upper-undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. E. J. Eisenach emeritus, University of Tulsa
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Edmund Burke's writings, among which the best known and influential is Reflections on the Revolution in France, are foundational to conservative political philosophy. This work traces Burke's ideas about politics and government as they emerged over his lengthy career in the latter half of the 1700s in the British House of Commons. Dividing his treatment into biographical and philosophical halves, Norman, presently a Conservative Party MP himself, anchors Burke's outlook in his youthful experiences in Ireland, which instilled in him repugnance for injustice and abuse of power. Touching on Burke's advocacy of reform in public issues of his day, Norman implicitly deploys Burke to challenge a caricature of conservatism as a reactionary ideology. Burke promoted repeal of restrictions on Catholics, reconciliation with the rebellious American colonies, free trade, and parliamentary supremacy in the British constitution. Depicting Burke as an advocate of gradual rather than radical social and political progress, Norman draws a clear contrast between the credence Burke gave tradition and its repudiation by Enlightenment rationalists. Still an important name in the contemporary political vocabulary, Burke is well defined by Norman.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Edmund Burke (1729-97) is one of those illustrious political figures now hazily remembered by general readers. He was a member of the British Parliament and a successful writer. A reformer and classical liberal-today he'd be a conservative-he worked for free trade and ending the sinecures that drained the public purse, and he strove for better governance of India. He tried to stop the breach between Britain and its colonies, but was ignored. Norman, himself a Conservative member of Parliament, first presents Burke's life, then examines the man's philosophy. The results serve as a solid, workmanlike introduction to the reformer and his time. The philosophical half of the book is clear, free of jargon, and accessible, painting Burke as a realist; man is "imperfectable," he maintained; science and logic cannot rule; the individual is inescapably part of a society. VERDICT A sound introduction to a thinker who remains important two centuries after his death. Very lightly footnoted and with a select bibliography, this will be a starting point for readers new to the study of Burke's life and ideas.-Michael O. Eshleman, Hobbs, NM (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Member of Parliament Norman (Compassionate Economics, 2008, etc.) comprehensively explains the history and the writings of the man whose thoughts have been quarried by politicians for hundreds of years. The author smartly divides his biography into sections on Edmund Burke's (17291797) life and his thought. The Dubliner arrived in London at age 20, and while he rarely returned, he strove throughout his 30-year parliamentary career for his countrymen and especially the Catholics in that land. Norman eases us into Burke's thinking, which was not a strict system of philosophy, but rather a flexible inconsistency dealing with the preservation of the social order and the essentials of political leadership. Where a philosopher searches for the proper ends of government, a politician searches for the means to that goal. Burke supported the cause of the American Revolution and vainly tried to prevent it, and he opposed the French Revolution because it focused on individuals and not so much liberty as license for the individual and his ethics of vanity--i.e., "what's in it for me?" Burke's writings were soundly rejected by Thomas Paine but extensively used in James Madison's institution of checks and balances. The author carefully clarifies the establishments of political parties (as opposed to factions), the relationship of representatives to voters, and the "Burkean imaginative engagement: a balance between ego and circumstance, between ambition and constraint, between individual and society." He also provides a fascinating picture of the political scene in England in the 18th century, where votes were bought with liquor or directed by landlords. A top-notch introduction to Burke and his paternity of political systems throughout the Western Hemisphere. Even better, the author points out where ignoring Burke's thoughts have caused unnecessary difficulties.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
