Edmund Burke

Born in Dublin in 1729, he was educated at Trinity College Dublin and later moved to London, where he built a career as a writer before entering Parliament. He became known as a brilliant speaker and political thinker, admired for the force and color of his language as much as for his ideas.

In public life, he supported causes that did not always fit neatly into one camp. He argued for better treatment of Ireland, spoke against abuses of power in British rule in India, and urged conciliation with the American colonists. At the same time, his attack on the French Revolution in Reflections on the Revolution in France made him one of the most influential critics of radical political upheaval.

Because of that combination of practical politics and large moral arguments, he is often seen as a founding voice of modern conservatism. Yet his writings reach far beyond party labels, returning again and again to questions of liberty, tradition, reform, and the dangers of political extremes.