Burke's Reflections (1790) predicted with uncanny accuracy the Reign of Terror which lay ahead. This book, however, is far more than a supremely eloquent piece of occasional writing. For Burke was without doubt the foremost conservative British political thinker: in his support for piecemeal reform rather than revolutionary change; in his skeptical belief in expediency and practical wisdom rather than abstract theorizing; in his defense of property, religion, and traditional institutions. On all these topics Burke gave a definitive expression to a set of attitudes still at the heart of today's controversies. Burke understood what the French Revolution was about, and attacked it root and branch. This will help you understand as well.
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