In this concise yet powerful book, one of the twentieth century's most respected political philosophers presents a controversial reassessment of the political ideas and intellectual legacy of Edmund Burke. A practicing politician and powerful writer, full of ideas, Burke was intent on getting those ideas translated into government policies. But he was too much the impatient practitioner to set out his principles in a single book in the manner of Locke or Hume, leaving both admirers and opponents ample scope to reinterpret his work in different ways. Macpherson, however, finds Burke's views on political economy to be the one consistent factor in his thinking. Today Burke is often viewed as one of modern conservatism's founding lights, and in an era of global capitalism unfettered by national borders, Macpherson's reassessment of Burke's ideas is perhaps more timely than ever.

C.B. Macpherson was a renowned writer and academic who held the position of Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He was also an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Macpherson's books include Democracy in Alberta, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, Burke, and the Rise and Fall of Economic Justice, and Other Papers. He died in 1987.

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