Research Catalog

Title

Old Whigs : Burke, Lincoln, and the politics of prudence / by Greg Weiner.

Author

Weiner, Greg

Publication

• New York : Encounter Books, 2019.
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 170 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"The virtue of prudence suffuses the writings of Edmund Burke and Abraham Lincoln, yet the demands of statecraft compelled both to take daring positions against long odds: Burke against the seemingly inexorable march of the French Revolution, Lincoln against disunion at a moment when the Northern situation appeared untenable. Placing their statesmanship and writings in relief helps to illuminate prudence in its full dimensions: inflected with caution but not confined to it, bound to circumstance, and finding expression in the particular but grounded in the absolute. This comparative study of two thinkers and statesmen who described themselves as "Old Whigs" argues for a recovery of prudence as the political virtue par excellence by viewing it through the eyes, words and deeds of two of its foremost exemplars. Both statesmen deeply informed by the life of the mind, Burke and Lincoln illustrate prudence in its universal but also contrasting dimensions. Burke emphasized the primacy of feeling, Lincoln the axioms of logic. Burke saw British prudence emanating from the mists of ancient history; for Lincoln, America's soul lay in a discrete moment of founding in 1776. Yet both were moved by a respect for the mysterious and customary. Each maintained the virtue of compromise while adhering to immovable commitments. At a time when American politics, and American conservatism in particular, teems with a desire for boldness but also an innate resistance to schemes of social or political transformation, this book answers with a fuller and richer account of prudence as it emerges in the thought and action of two of the great statesmen and thinkers of modern times"--

Subjects

• Political science
• United States
• Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797
• Political leadership > Moral and ethical aspects
• Political science > Great Britain > History > 18th century
• Great Britain
• Whig Party (Great Britain)
• Whig Party (Great Britain) History
• Politics and government
• Political and social views
• Prudence > Political aspects
• Whig Party (U.S.) History
• United States > Politics and government > 19th century
• Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797 > Political and social views
• History
• Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 > Political and social views
• 1700-1899
• Whig Party (U.S.)

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

"The God of this lower world": Burke on prudence -- "The family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle": Lincoln on prudence -- "Sophisters, economists, and calculators": Burke on reason and revelation -- "Definitions and axioms": Lincoln on reason and revelation -- "The little catechism of the rights of man": Burke on liberty -- "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master": Lincoln on liberty -- "The collected reason of ages": Burke and Lincoln on custom -- Liberty and authority, patience and resolve: recovering the politics of prudence.

Call Number

JFE 19- 9638

ISBN

• 9781641770507
• 1641770503

LCCN

• 2018053320
• 40029323275

OCLC

1051670339

Author

Weiner, Greg, author.

Title

Old Whigs : Burke, Lincoln, and the politics of prudence / by Greg Weiner.

Publisher

New York : Encounter Books, 2019.

Copyright Date

©2019

Edition

First American edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1700-1899

Other Form:

Online version: Weiner, Greg, author. Old Whigs New York : Encounter Books, [2019] 9781641770514 (DLC) 2019010769

Other Standard Identifier

40029323275

Research Call Number

JFE 19- 9638