Conservatism : [electronic resource] an anthology of social and political thought from David Hume to the present / edited by Jerry Z. Muller.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Of justice" from An enquiry concerning the principles of morals ; "Of the origin of government" ; "Of the original contract" ; "Of passive obedience" / David Hume -- "Preface" to A vindication of natural society / Edmund Burke -- "On the diminished disgrace of whores and their children in our day" ; "No promotion according to merit" / Justus Möser -- Reflections on the revolution in France / Edmund Burke -- On divorce / Louis de Bonald -- Essay on the generative principle of political constitutions and of other human institutions / Joseph de Maistre -- "Federalist no. 49" / James Madison -- "The position and functions of the American Bar, as an element of conservatism in the state" / Rufus Choate -- Culture and anarchy / Matthew Arnold -- Liberty, equality, fraternity / James Fitzjames Stephen -- Aristocracy and evolution : a study of the rights, the origin, and social functions of the wealthier classes / W.H. Mallock -- "Aptitude and social mobility" / Joseph A. Schumpeter -- "Sociological fallacies" ; "On the case of a certain man who is never thought of" ; "An examination of a noble sentiment" / William Graham Sumner --

"Essays on war" / T.E. Hulme -- "When Parliament cannot be sovereign" / Carl Schmitt -- "Political leadership and democracy" / Joseph A. Schumpeter -- "Speech on rebuilding the House of Commons" / Winston Churchill -- "Rationalism in politics" / Michael Oakeshott -- "The errors of constructivism" ; The mirage of social justice / Friedrich Hayek -- The unheavenly city revisited / Edward Banfield -- "Pornography, obscenity, and the case for censorship" / Irving Kristol -- To empower people : the role of mediating structures in public policy / Peter L. Berger and Richard John Neuhaus -- "The social consequences of attempts to create equality" / Hermann Lübbe -- "On culture, nature, and naturalness" ; "Man and institutions" / Arnold Gehlen -- "Toward a theory of culture" / Philip Rieff.

At a time when the label "conservative" is indiscriminately applied to fundamentalists, populists, libertarians, fascists, and the advocates of one or another orthodoxy, this volume offers a nuanced and historically informed presentation of what is distinctive about conservative social and political thought. It is an anthology with an argument, locating the origins of modern conservatism within the Enlightenment and distinguishing between conservatism and orthodoxy. Bringing together important specimens of European and American conservative social and political analysis from the mid-eighteenth century through our own day, Conservatism demonstrates that while the particular institutions that conservatives have sought to conserve have varied, there are characteristic features of conservative argument that recur over time and across national borders. The book proceeds chronologically through the following sections: Enlightenment Conservatism (David Hume, Edmund Burke, and Justus Möser), The Critique of Revolution (Burke, Louis de Bonald, Joseph de Maistre, James Madison, and Rufus Choate), Authority (Matthew Arnold, James Fitzjames Stephen), Inequality (W. H. Mallock, Joseph A. Schumpeter), The Critique of Good Intentions (William Graham Sumner), War (T. E. Hulme), Democracy (Carl Schmitt, Schumpeter), The Limits of Rationalism (Winston Churchill, Michael Oakeshott, Friedrich Hayek, Edward Banfield), The Critique of Social and Cultural Emancipation (Irving Kristol, Peter Berger and Richard John Neuhaus, Hermann Lubbe), and Between Social Science and Cultural Criticism (Arnold Gehlen, Philip Rieff). The book contains an afterword on recurrent tensions and dilemmas of conservative thought.--Publisher description.