Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke Paperback – May 2, 2017 by Richard Bourke (Princeton University Press)

Richard Bourke began developing this history of Edmund Burke’s political thought in 1991. Published in 2015, "Empire & Revolution" uses Burke as a window into the eighteenth century articulations of British imperial power, exploring the way that Burke approached relations between Britain, Ireland, America, India, and France. It's Bourke on Burke in the best way possible.

The book begins with Burke’s boyhood in Ireland, which fascinated me. I hadn't realized that Burke was Irish (never having studied him in any great detail before this). Because of my longstanding interest in Irish history, this helped to put Burke's life in a familiar and interesting frame, and his various experiences of growing up in a family newly converted to Protestantism, then with his Catholic relatives, then at a Quaker school, and, finally, finishing his schooling at a Protestant university helped me to make sense both of Burke's enduring interest in the goals and mechanisms of power, and in his attempts to remain evenhanded and resist tyrannies of all kinds throughout his life. Though the book isn't an "intimate" look at Burke's personal life, it does attend to his general situation, his actions, his professional and public relationships, and his various alliances in detail, situating the development of his thought in his daily affairs, and taking up his main publications in a chronological order to trace the trajectory of Burke's attention and the maturing of his thought over the course of his lifetime. The book closes with the challenge of grappling with Burke’s ongoing legacy.

Through all this, the book is beautifully written. Professor Bourke’s long study, attention to detail, and gift for trenchant observation make this a lot of fun to read.

After I read the book, I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Bourke for the New Books Network. Our conversation ranged over subjects as familiar today as they were in the 1700s, including Burke’s understanding of representative politics as a means of resolving conflicts present in the public at large, struggles between state and corporate power, and the warrant for popular revolution. One thing that he said really struck me, “A career doesn't have the coherence we impose upon it belatedly, but there exist preoccupations that recur and drive our action.” Of course he's right, and it's just these kinds of careful, nuanced observations that make his book such a good one. He is careful to note his own judgements of Burke's life and thought, and at the same time careful to hold fast to the difference between the subjects of our study and the meaning we make from them.

For all of these reasons, and many more, it's a fantastic book. Highly recommended.