Russell Kirk - by James E Person (Paperback)

About the Book

This first full-length treatment of Russell Kirk's life and accomplishments blends new biographical insights and critical perspectives about the author of the ground-breaking The Conservative Mind.

Book Synopsis

This first full-length treatment of Russell Kirk's life and accomplishments blends new biographical insights and critical perspectives about the author of the ground-breakingThe Conservative Mind.

Review Quotes

[Person's] book represents a signal contribution to Kirk scholarship.

A brilliant synthesis of the many strands making up Russell Kirk's amazing life and legacy. Person brings to vivid life the man and the career that made modern conservatism possible, and could re-enliven it today.

Deft, informative, and amazingly comprehensive; friendly to its subject but not slavishly so.

In this highly accessible and readable introduction to the life and works of Russell Kirk, Person provides a coherent and convincing analysis of Kirk's enduring significance to American politics and humane learning. Originally published in 1999, the volume...remains an excellent contribution to scholarship. Person's mission is to introduce a new generation to 'one of the greatest minds this nation has produced during the twentieth century.' The book is organized into four sections that outline Kirk's achievement. The first is devoted to interpreting Kirk's background, use of historical consciousness, views on education, and constitutionalism. The second critiques Kirk's devotion to the importance of literature and social criticism. The last two sections survey Kirk's economic thought and his lasting importance as a political thinker. The greatest contribution of this worthwhile volume can be found in the author's review of Kirk's defense of a social order grounded in justice and the diffusion of political power.

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

Person's book helps us not only in measuring the value of Russell Kirk's contribution to conservative thought, but also in discerning his worthy role in American life and letters. It is a book that reminds us, too, of how much Kirk has helped us to fathom the true nature of 'armed doctrines' in our time.

Russell Kirk and his writings should be part of the education of every American--conservative or liberal--who thinks seriously and deeply about the future of our republic. An excellent introduction, sustained by sound scholarship, and enlivened by vivid writing.

Russell Kirk's scholarship gave respectability to the conservative movement after World War II. He stands at the very summit of political philosophers, and Person's biography is indeed worthy of its subject.

This book...will show an entire new generation what a fine man and excellent thinker lived in our time.

About the Author

James E. Person Jr. worked in reference publishing for over 30 years, writing for and editing such distinguished reference works as Major Twentieth-Century Writers, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. His essays, article, and reviews have appeared in Modern Age, National Review, The University Bookman, and TheSewanee Review, among many other venues. He is the editor of The Unbought Grace of Life: Essays in Honor of Russell Kirk and the author of Earl Hamner: From Walton's Mountain to Tomorrow.