Reflections on the Revolution in France
Published in November 1790, Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France is a founding text of modern conservatism. Written as a letter, it condemns the French Revolution's abstract rationalism and wholesale destruction of inherited institutions, defending instead gradual reform, prescription, religious establishment, and the accumulated wisdom of tradition. Prophetic in foreseeing the Revolution's descent into terror and military dictatorship, it provoked a wave of replies—most famously Paine's Rights of Man—and remains a touchstone of political thought.
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