Edmund Burke Flashcards
When was Edmund Burke born?
b.1729 d.1797
What was Burke’s first published work?
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756). It was published anonymously.
What was his first successful work?
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)
On what literary and aesthetic movements did Burke’s work on the Sublime and Beautiful have a great influence?
Romantic and Gothic movements.
What is the main argument that Burke proposes in his work on Sublime and Beautiful?
Burke proposes that beauty stimulates love, but that the sublime excites horror. While beauty relaxes, the sublime brings tension. The feeling that something is sublime is triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive light.
Burke edited a work that was a yearly survey of world affairs, what is the title?
The Annual Register, first volume of which was edited by Burke in 1758. He continued his association with it for 30 more years. The Annual Register is still running.
What was The Annual Register’s original subtitle?
A View of the History, Politicks and Literature of the Year
What is a famous political pamphlet that Burke wrote in 1770?
“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” . It was in relation to the controversy of King George III’s reassertion of royal power on the executive. Burke believed that the king’s actions were not against the letter but against the spirit of the constitution.
What are the well known speeches by Burke on taxation of the American colonies?
“On American Taxation” (1774) and “On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies” (1775), and “A Letter to…the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America” (1777).
Who provoked Burke into writing his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)?
Richard Price, a protestant dissenter who delivered a sermon welcoming the revolution.
Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France provoked many responses. What was a famous response from a future founding father of America?
Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man (1791-92)
