The Useful Cobbler: Edmund Burke and the Politics of Progress

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SUNY Press, Jan 1, 1994 - Political Science - 363 pages
Neither a polemic nor a highly specialized study, this book is a comprehensive assessment of Burke's political thought. Using evidence from such neglected sources as Burke's essays on history and law and making full use of his extensive correspondence, the author places Burke in the context of developments in a number of areas of eighteenth-century British intellectual life, ranging from philosophy to literature, and presents him as a key figure in the evolution of the theory and practice of representative government.
 

Contents

INTRODUCTION THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EDMUND BURKE
1
BURKE AND THE SEARCH FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS OF HUMAN ACTION
19
THE WHIGGISM OF HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF WHIGGISM
53
BURKE ON THE FOUNDATIONS AND NATURE OF GOVERNMENT
85
BURKE ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF STATE AUTHORITY
113
THE POLITICS OF TRUSTEESHIP
137
POLITICAL PARTIES AND THEIR USES
161
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE THEORY OF SOVEREIGNTY
185
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE CRISIS OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION
215
IRELAND INDIA AND THE DELUGE
251
NOTES
275
BIBLIOGRAPHY
341
INDEX
355
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About the author (1994)

James Conniff is Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University.

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