STUDIES IN BURKE AND HIS TIME AND HIS STUDIES IN BURKE I N THE N EXT I SS UE ... S TEVEN P. M ILLIE S STUDIES IN The Inner Light of Edmund Burke A N D REA R A D A S ANU Edmund Burke’s Anti-Rational Conservatism R O B ERT H . B ELL The Sentimental Romances of Lawrence Sterne AND HIS TIME J.D. C . C LARK A Rejoinder to Reviews of Clark’s Edition of Burke’s Reflections Aaron D. Hoffman R EVIEW S O F Joseph MEllis’sICHAEL Burkean B ROWN Founding The Meal at the Saracen’s Head: Edmund Burke F . P. L OCK , Edmund Burke Volume II: 1784 – 1797 Elizabethand the Scottish Lambert Literati S EAN P ATRICK D ONLAN , Edmund Burke’s Irish Identities M ICHAELThe Scholarly F UNK DFactoriesECKAR D N EIL M C A RTHUR , David Hume’s Political Theory Wonder and Beauty in Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry Jeffrey O. Nelson E LIZA B ETH L A MB ERT , Edmund Burke of Beaconsfield R O B ERT H . B ELL Fool for Love: Burke’sThe Sentimental American Romances Characters of Laurence Sterne SJosephTEVEN P.Pappin M ILLIE IIIS The Inner Light of Edmund Burke: A Biographical Approach toEdmund Burke’s Religious Burke andFaith Leo and Strauss Epistemology and STUDIES IN the Charge of ‘Historicism’ VOLUME 22 2011 reviews of Ian Crowe. Patriotism and Public Spirit: Edmund Burke and the Role of the CriticREVIEW in Mid-Eighteenth-CenturyS O F Britain; Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: AND HIS TIME F.P.LOCK, Edmund Burke: Vol. II, 1784–1797; DANIEL ConservatismI. O’NEILL, The from Burke-Wollstonecraft Edmund Burke to Sarah Debate: Palin; Savagery, AndréCivilization, Gushurst-Moore and Democracy;, The Common EDWARD FEMind:SER, Locke;Politics, Society SEANand ChristianPATRICK D HumanismONLAN, ED from., Edmund Thomas Burke’s More Irishto Russell Identities Kirk; P. O . B OX 4 4 31 , W IL M INGTON , D E 19807-0431 David Willetts, The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their VOLUMEChildren’s 22 Future—and Why They Should Give It Back; 2011 Jesse Norman, Edmund Burke: The First Conservative. VOLUME 23 2013 EDITORS Joseph Pappin III Elizabeth R. Lambert University of South Carolina Gettysburg College EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ian Crowe Brewton-Parker College PUBLISHER Annette Y. Kirk Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal ASSOCIATE EDITORS Bruce P. Frohnen Frederick G. Whelan Ohio Northern University University of Pittsburgh FOUNDING EDITOR Peter J. Stanlis EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Steven Blakemore Florida Atlantic University Mark C. Henrie Intercollegiate Studies Institute David Bromwich Yale University F. P. Lock Queen’s University, Ontario J. C. D. Clark University of Kansas Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. Harvard University L. M. Cullen Trinity College, Dublin Steven P. Millies University of South Carolina Sean Patrick Donlan, University of Limerick Jeffrey O. Nelson Intercollegiate Studies Institute John Faulkner Ohio University–Lancaster Jennifer Pitts University of Chicago The Rt. Hon. David Willetts Member of Parliament, United Kingdom © 2013 Educational Reviewer, Inc. / The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. Studies in Burke and His Time is the journal of the Edmund Burke Society of America, published by the Educational Reviewer, Inc., in cooperation with the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. VOLUME 23 2013 Contents 2 Editor’s Introduction 4 Notes on Contributors 5 Joseph Ellis’s Burkean Founding Aaron D. Hoffman 22 The Scholarly Factories Elizabeth Lambert 32 Burke’s American Characters Jeffrey O. Nelson 71 Edmund Burke and Leo Strauss and the Charge of ‘Historicism’ Joseph Pappin III BOOK REVIEWS 83 Ian Crowe, Patriotism and Public Spirit: Edmund Burke and the Role of the Critic in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain. Frederick G. Whelan 89 Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin. André Gushurst-Moore, The Common Mind: Politics, Society and Christian Humanism from Thomas More to Russell Kirk. David Willetts, The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future—and Why They Should Give It Back. H. Lee Cheek, Jr. 94 Jesse Norman, Edmund Burke: The First Conservative. Ian Crowe Editor’s Introduction j With the appearance of this, the fourth issue of the revived Stud- ies in Burke and His Time, the editors welcome you to our new format. While true Burkeans among our readers will understandably regret the cessation of our print issues, we are convinced that this change will increase the accessibility of the journal and raise the profile of the Edmund Burke Society and its contribution to Burke scholarship. Volume 23 contains rich and provocative analyses of Burke and his- tory: Burke’s profile in history, Burke as a writer of history, and the accessibility of Burke as a subject of historical research. We hope that this issue will attest to the continuing breadth and vibrancy of discus- sions about the relevance of Burke’s thought today, and also (in the emphasis to be found in a number of the articles on the early, “pre-po- litical” writings of Burke), the fresh material and perspectives still to be drawn from the archival collections and published works alike. Aaron Hoffman explores the intriguing concept of a “Burkean” Founding from an unusual direction, assessing the concept as it appears in the writings of the famous historian of the Founding Era, Joseph Ellis. From the other side of the Atlantic, we see, in Jeffrey Nelson’s innovative examination of the underutilized source An Account of the European Settlements in America, Burke’s early interest in the history of the Americas and, through the medium of “character” in that and other of his early writings, his emerging critique of empire and the responsi- bilities of imperial rule. Burke the historian has, for many years now, been overshadowed by Burke the pragmatist, or the philosopher of prudence, and Joseph 2 Editor’S Introduction Pappin takes on the implications of this for our understanding of Burke’s historical imagination by revisiting the charge of historicism as directed at Burke by Leo Strauss. In Elizabeth Lambert’s highly orig- inal contribution, Burke becomes himself a subject of “historicization,” as we are introduced to a vital and distinctive phase of eighteenth-cen- tury archival scholarship, and the history of the postwar “Burke Factory” of archival materials that proved to be such a key resource in the post- war Burke revival. Our book reviewers offer comment on recent publications serving related themes: Lee Cheek considers a diverse group of studies that touch upon Burke’s status in historical traditions of conservative and religious thought both in the United States and in Great Britain, while Frederick Whelan examines a recent study of Burke that attempts to seek out a more historically fixed Burke in the immediate commer- cial and intellectual contexts that surrounded him in his early years in mid-century London. The editors are grateful indeed to the Earhart Foundation and the Educational Reviewer for supporting us in our move “online,” and to the Russell Kirk Center for hosting the Edmund Burke Society website and providing for us a forum where we can continue to promote the latest thought in the study of Burke and his time. We are also keen to receive submissions of articles for publication, books for review, and general comments on ways in which the new web- site might better serve its goals. Please send any submissions or com- munications to the executive editor, Ian Crowe, at: [email protected], or 9628, Elizabeth Townes Lane, Charlotte, NC. 28277. IAN CROWE 3 Notes on Contributors j Aaron D. Hoffman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Bellarmine University. His research areas are the history of political the- ory and American political thought. Elizabeth Lambert is a retired Professor of English at Gettysburg College. She is author of Edmund Burke of Beaconsfield and has pub- lished articles on various aspects of Burke’s life and thought, including his religion, his friendship with Samuel Johnson, and the ways James Boswell’s portrayal of Burke in the Life of Johnson was influenced by their personal relationship. Jeffrey O. Nelson is Executive Vice President for the Intercolle- giate Studies Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Edinburgh. He is the founding editor and publisher of the Insti- tute’s press, ISI Books, and executive editor of Modern Age: A Quarterly Review. Vice chairman of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal and secretary of the Edmund Burke Society of America, Dr. Nelson is also the editor of several books, including Redeeming the Time by Rus- sell Kirk, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, and Remembered Past by John Lukacs. Joseph Pappin III is president of the Edmund Burke Society of Amer- ica and a co-editor of Studies in Burke and His Time. He teaches at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and is author of The Meta- physics of Edmund Burke. 4 Joseph Ellis’s Burkean Founding j Aaron D. Hoffman Bellarmine University Abstract A Burkean interpretation of the Founding has a strong but largely unac- knowledged spokesman in one of the nation’s most celebrated historians of the American Founding period, Joseph Ellis. This is at a time when the American public’s fascination with its first generation of statesmen continues. One need only turn on the C-Span network or notice the popularity of the Emmy award–winning HBO television miniseries on John Adams, the same John Adams praised by Russell Kirk in his book The Conservative Mind, to see that the American Founders are still rel- evant to our greater political conversation.1 These circumstances should give Burke scholars the impetus to continue to engage the greater schol- arly and public conversations about the American Founding.