BURKE, EDMUND

born Jan. 12?, [Jan. 1, Old Style], 1729, Dublin, Ire. died July 9, 1797, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Eng. British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker prominent in public life from 1765 to about 1795 and important in the history of political theory. He championed conservatism in opposition to Jacobinism in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Additional reading Biographies include Stanley Ayling, Edmund Burke: His Life and Opinions (1988); and Alice P. Miller, Edmund Burke and His World (1979). Discussions of Burke's thought in relation to the political issues of his career include John Morley, Edmund Burke: A Historical Study (1867, reprinted 1979); Carl B. Cone, Burke and the Nature of Politics, 2 vol. (195764); Gerald W. Chapman, Edmund Burke: The Practical Imagination (1967); F.P. Lock, Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1985); and C.B. Macpherson, Burke (1980). Attempts to restate Burke's ideas as a systematic political philosophy include Charles W. Parkin, The Moral Basis of Burke's Political Thought (1956, reprinted 1968); Peter J. Stanlis, Edmund Burke and the Natural Law (1958), and Edmund Burke: The Enlightenment and Revolution (1991); Francis Canavan, The Political Reason of Edmund Burke (1960), and Edmund Burke: Prescription and Providence (1987); and Michael Freeman, Edmund Burke and the Critique of Political Radicalism (1980). George Fasel, Edmund Burke (1983), studies his political activism. Christopher Reid, Edmund Burke and the Practice of Political Writing (1985), analyzes Burkean rhetoric and literary form.