Edmund Burke and the Conservative Logic of Empire

Edmund Burke, long considered modern conservatism&rsquo;s founding father, is also widely believed to be an opponent of empire. However, Daniel O&rsquo;Neill turns that latter belief on its head. This fresh and innovative book shows that Burke was a passionate supporter and staunch defender of the British Empire in the eighteenth century, whether in the New World, India, or Ireland.&#160; Moreover&mdash;and against a growing body of contemporary scholarship that rejects the very notion that Burke was an exemplar of conservatism&mdash;O&rsquo;Neill demonstrates that Burke&rsquo;s defense of empire was in fact ideologically consistent with his conservative opposition to the French Revolution. Burke&rsquo;s logic of empire relied on two opposing but complementary theoretical strategies: Ornamentalism, which stressed cultural similarities between &ldquo;civilized&rdquo; societies, as he understood them, and Orientalism, which stressed the putative cultural differences distinguishing &ldquo;savage&rdquo; societies from their &ldquo;civilized&rdquo; counterparts. This incisive book also shows that Burke&rsquo;s argument had lasting implications, as his development of these two justifications for empire prefigured later intellectual defenses of British imperialism.&#160;<BR />