Reflections on the Revolution in France Audiobook

" Tough read as the book is one never-ending chapter. Basically Burke says "you guys overdid it." "

" Meet the book that prevented the French Revolution from jumping across the channel into England. It remains the granddaddy expose of leftism, or what we call today (perversely) liberalism. "

" Burke predicts the reign of terror and the rise of Napoleon. "

" Since Burke composed this thing as a letter there are no section or chapter breaks; Burke just keeps going and going and going and going and this has nothing to do, really, with his actual arguments, which, due to their influence on people who influenced people who influence us, still deserve some attention. "

" Takes real effort to sort through the history lessons and the random opinions to get to the political and social implications of the French Revolution (that was helpful to my dissertation research) "

" It mostly just really tickles me to think of Burke earnestly & furiously reacting to a negative online review 200 years after publication. "

" The two star rating is actually a pleasant surprise. "

" Enlightening, in that it lets you see what quasi-democratic revolutions look like to a member of the wealthy upper class in a traditional monarchy. Burke's tone, however, is pompous, and many of the things he says are simply vile. "

" Whig windbag mounts his defence for inherited privilege and vested interest: roll on Tom Paine, s'all I can say. "

" I don't like conservatism "

" The occasional validity of Burke's criticism of Jacobin excesses is completely undermined by the reactionary and chauvinistic philosophy in which it is couched. No wonder Mary Wollestonecraft and Thomas Paine were able to rip through his hoary ideas with such ease. "

" George Will et al are more right than they have a right to be when they say they're Burke's heirs, sad to say. "

" Fascinating, but in desperate need of a strong editor and good index (two things Oxford is notoriously awful at). A little goes a long way. "

" Overwritten, and way too authoritative for me. "

" One of the greatest works of political philosophy ever written "

" I don't see this as an expression of a moribund/reactionary/traditionalist conservatism. On the contrary, I see a recognizable sense of liberality in it. "

" In combining political thought and political activism, Burke is second only to Cicero. Speaking of Cicero, note the contrast between his description of the Roman regime's founding and Burke's historicist account of England's origins (the credit goes to Strauss for this point.) "