A review by acarman1
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk

4.0

An excellent overview of conservative thought. In an age when most associate conservatism with the selfish libertarianism of Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, Kirk reminds us that true conservatives seek to protect the "permanent things", the traditions of society, and to recognize that the wisdom of humanity is in the aggregate, not the individual. Kirk's unwillingness to confront the issue of slavery weakens him a bit when he includes John Randolph and John Calhoun because of their support for local authority. Kirk claims they stood for the rights of minorities in a democratic age, apparently not noting the irony. Still this book is a welcome antidote to the unintellectual conservatism of the modern day.