Russell Kirk

La biografía del padre del pensamiento conservador moderno. “Burke vigila desde la torre de la tradición y del orden. ¿Está vivo o muerto? Eso depende del espíritu de los tiempos. Para cierta clase d

Un libro que será objeto de polémica en el ambiente cultural y mediático de la derecha. ¿A qué llamamos ser conservador ? ¿En qué se diferencia el conservadurismo de la propuesta liberal? Y, sobre todo, ¿que proponen los conservadores para el mundo?

Un programa para conservadores ofrece más criterios y lúcidas preguntas que respuestas concretas. Sin embargo, la realidad moderna es tan compleja que nunca fue tan importante acertar en las preguntas para llegar a alcanzar las mejores respuestas. Finalmente, el proposito de este libro es inequivoco: Ayudar a repensar el modo en que entendemos el orden social y moral en el que hemos nacido; y sugerir los medios necesarios para preservar y renovar lo permanente en tiempos en los que el caos y la oscuridad amenazan con recuperar sus antiguos dominios

The modern conservative intellectual movement began in 1953 with Russell Kirks groundbreaking book The Conservative Mind. Four years later, he published a pithy, wry, philosophical summary of what conservatism really means. Originally titled The Intelligent Womans Guide to Conservatism, this little book was essentially a popular version of The Conservative Mind. Now, a century after its authors birth, this neglected gem has been recovered. It remains what Kirk intended it to be: an accessible introduction to conservative ideas, especially for the young. With a new title and an introduction by the eminent intellectual historian Wilfred M. McClay, Russell Kirks Concise Guide to Conservatism arrives with uncanny timing. The movement that Kirk defined in 1953 is today so contested and fragmented that no one seems able to say with confidence what conservatism means. This book, as fresh and prophetic as the day it was published sixty years ago, is a reminder that no one can match Russell Kirk in engaging peoples minds and imaginationsan indispensable task in reviving our civilization.

What holds America together? In this classic work, Russell Kirk identifies the beliefs and institutions that have nurtured the American soul and commonwealth. Beginning with the Hebrew prophets, Kirk examines in dramatic fashion the sources of American order. His analytical narrative might be called a "tale of five cities": Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia. For an understanding of the significance of America in the twenty-first century, Russell Kirks masterpiece on the history of American civilization is unsurpassed.

"It is inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without Kirks labor." WILLIAM F BUCKLEY "A profound critique of contemporary mass society, and a vivid and poetic image - not a program, an image - of how that society might better itself. [ The Conservative Mind ] is, in important respects, the twentieth centurys own version of the Reflections on the Revolution in France... [Kirk] was an artist, a vsionary, almost a prophet." - DAVID FRUM, author of Dead Right"I have been one of your fans since the time many years ago when I read The Conservative Mind." - RICHARD NIXON"Dr. Russell Kirks impact on conservative thought and policy in America has been decisive. It was his writings, and in particular his seminal work, The Conservative Mind, that laid the foundation for many of the ideas that continue to shape public discourse and debate to this day." - JOHN ENGLER, former Governer of Michigan "Kirk is assured a place of prominence in the intellectual histories for helping to define the ethical basis of conservatism. He has tried to pull conservatism away from the utilitarian premises of libertarianism, toward which conservatism often veers, toward a philosophy rooted in ethics and culture." - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Russell Kirks The Conservative Mind is one of the greatest contributions to twentieth-century American conservatism. Brilliant in every respect, from its conception to its choice of significant figures representing the history of intellectual conservatism, The Conservative Mind launched the modern American Conservative Movement when it was first published in 1953 and has become an enduring classic of political thought. The seventh revised edition features the complete text and an introduction by publisher Henry Regnery. A must-read.

Though much has been written about T. S. Eliot since it was first published, Eliot and His Age remains the best introduction to the poets life, ideas, and literary works. It is the essential starting place for anyone who would understand what Eliot was about. Russell Kirks view of his older friend is sympathetic but not adulatory. His insights into Eliots writings are informed by wide reading in the same authors who most influenced the poet, as well as by similar experiences and convictions. Kirk elaborates here a significant theory of literary meaning in general, showing how great literary works awaken our intuitive reason, giving us profound visions of truth that transcend logical processes. And he traces Eliots political and cultural ideas to their true sources, showing the balance and subtlety of Eliots views. Eliot and His Age is a literary biography that will endure when much of the more recent writing on Eliot is gathering dust.

30th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by Michael Federici.Conservatives are guided by prudence. So taught Russell Kirk (19181994), one of the founding fathers of American conservatism. If the tradition of prudential politics has fallen on hard times, its comeback might well begin in the pages of this wise book. An understanding of prudence as practical wisdom, the capacity of choosing the right means to attain worthy ends, is much needed in our time. It is the virtue most associated with the statesman.Distinguishing political prudence from ideology, Kirk examines ten principles, events, books, and thinkers that have shaped the conservative mind and heart. The final chapter examines the shortcomings of democracy throughout the world and the need for representative government conducted by temperate and thoughtful men and women. In an eloquent epilogue, Kirk calls the rising generation to the defense of orderboth the moral order and the social order, the order of the soul and the order of societyagainst the enemies of justice, freedom, and a high culture.Reflecting decades of learning and practical experience, this lucid book is Kirks bequest to the young men and women of today, an instruction manual for redeeming the time.

In this, the liveliest and most accessible one-volume life of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk ingeniously combines into a living whole the private and the public Burke. He gives us a fresh assessment of the great statesman, who enjoys even greater influence today than in his own time. Russell Kirk was a leading figure in the post-World War II revival of American interest in Edmund Burke. Today, no one who takes seriously the problems of society dares remain indifferent to "the first conservative of our time of troubles." In Russell Kirks words: "Burkes ideas interest anyone nowadays, including men bitterly dissenting from his conclusions. If conservatives would know what they defend, Burke is their touchstone; and if radicals wish to test the temper of their opposition, they should turn to Burke." Kirk lucidly unfolds Burkes philosophy, showing how it revealed itself in concrete historical situations during the eighteenth century and how Burke, through his philosophy, "speaks to our age." This volume makes vivid the four great struggles in the life of Burke: his efforts to reconcile England with the American colonies; his involvements in cutting down the domestic power of George III; his prosecution of Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India; and his resistance to Jacobinism, the French Revolutions "armed doctrine." In each of these great phases of his public life, Burke fought with passionate eloquence and relentless logic for justice and for the proper balance of order and freedom. With sure instinct born of his sympathy and understanding, Kirk gives us the incisive quotation, the illuminating highlight, the moving, all-too-human elements that bring Burke and his age to vivid life. Thanks to Russell Kirks skillful evocations, Edmund Burke in these pages becomes our contemporary. "Because corruption and fanaticism assail our era as sorely as they did Burkes time, the resonance of Burkes voice still is heard amidst the howl of our winds of abstract doctrine."

As the author of The Conservative Mind and other seminal books, Russell Kirk is usually thought of as one of the American conservative political movements most important progenitors. But as this collection demonstrates, Kirk was perhaps at his best as an essayist. This volume also confirms that Kirks was principally a literary and historical conservatism that refused to fit the irreducible complexity of human experience to the requirements of any ideological straitjacket. With The Essential Russell Kirk, literary critic George A. Panichas captures the breadth and depth of Kirks intellectual project by gathering together forty-four of the most masterful of Kirks essays, along with a unique chronology told in Kirks own words and a substantial introduction that articulates the deep humanism that animated Kirks philosophy. The result is a carefully assembled volume that gives us a fuller picture of an extraordinary man and writer, one whose labors had, and continue to have, remarkable repercussions on the American literary and political landscape.

The American Cause explains in simple yet eloquent language the bedrock principles upon which Americas experiment in constitutional self-government is built. Russell Kirk, whose life and thought has recently been featured in C-SPANs acclaimed American Writers series -- intended this little book to be an assertion of the moral and social principles upholding our nation. Kirks primer is an aid to reflection on those principles -- political, economic, and religious -- that have united Americans when faced with challenges and threats from the enemies of ordered freedom. In this new age of terrorism, Kirks lucid and straightforward presentation of the articles of American belief is both necessary and welcome. Gleaves Whitneys newly edited version of Kirks work, combined with his insightful commentary, make The American Cause a timely addition to the literature of liberty.

Texte intégral révisé. Influent théoricien du néo-conservatisme américain, fondateur de la revue Modern Age, ami entre autres de Flannery OConnor, T.S. Eliot, Ronald Reagan et Ray Bradbury, Russell Kirk (1918-1994) est aussi un ecrivain a succes auteur de plusieurs livres relevant du genre Fantastique. Dans son introduction a "The Surly Sullen Bell", un recueil dhistoires de fantomes dont est tiree cette nouvelle, il ecrit ceci: "Voici des contes de nuit noire plutot que de crepuscule, des contes ouvertement gothiques. Le lecteur y trouvera des reminiscences de Montague R. James, de Henry James et meme de Jesse James. Je nai pas de theories pour expliquer les fantomes et autres especes de spectres: je crois simplement a lexistence de tels phenomenes, comme dailleurs maints tenants de la psychologie. Une grande partie de ma vie sest ecoulee dans des lieux hantes: a St. Andrews, la plus macabre des villes; dans lile dEigg, ou dans les ruelles de Verone et de Rome; dans les etranges chateaux et demeures campagnardes de Fife; et plus specialement dans ma vieille maison de Mecosta, dans le Michigan, ou veille lesprit swedenborgien de mes ancetres."

EL PROPóSITO DE KIRK EN LA PRESENTE OBRA ES TRAZAR UNA SENDA LUMINOSA QUE CONDUZCA A UNA RESPUESTA DURADERA, VáLIDA EN CUALQUIER TIEMPO Y LUGAR Y CAPAZ DE HACER FRENTE A LOS DESAFIOS DE CADA éPOCA A TRAVeS DE UNOS PRINCIPIOS INMUTABLES. LEJOS DE PRETENDER