As eighteenth-century Europe sizzled with revolutionary fervor fanned by the flames of the newly won freedom of the British colonies in America, one of the few lone voices of conservative government was that of Edmund Burke. He focused his keen eye on the social and political ramifications of egalitarianism and what its dissemination in France might mean for the future of the liberty, order, and political tradition that had served the Continent so well. His statement and defense of conservative principles against the onslaught of social liberation has carved for him a special place in the history of political theory.
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