Condition: Acceptable. Please see the images for more details. Previous owner’s notes inside.
Cover art: Jacket Painting by Eugène Delacroix, "Liberty Leading the People," Louvre Museum. Jacket Transparency Courtesy of Peter Adelberg, NYC”
Blurb: “Because the French Revolution was, in Burke's phrase, "the most astonishing event... in human history," a full seventeen months elapsed after the first meeting of the National Assembly before any notable public figure dared to interpret the events in France to an awe-struck world. In November 1790, Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France, a masterpiece of political analysis and prediction which ran through ten editions in the first year. Many attempts were made to refute Burke's attack on the Revolu-tion, of which none was more famous than Thomas Paine's Rights of Man.
The issue joined between these great antagonists was the value of our civilized heritage. Burke believed that each generation was beholden for its liberties, its learning, and other great gifts to the cumulative achievement of all past generations. Paine wished to free man from the dead hand of corrupt custom and hereditary privilege and to restore him to full possession of his original natural rights. At the beginning of our era of glittering and terrible revolutions, Burke taught fear of human pride and Paine, hope in human charity, both with a clear and passionate conviction that can still instruct and move us.”