This book provides both a contribution to this developing literature and an implicit revision. It takes the detailed analysis of conservative ideas out of the realm of intellectual biography, where it has largely remained, and situates the major fi gures in dialogue with one another. By focusing on networks and pro cesses of intellectual exchange, it devotes substantial attention to institutional context without inferring that the environment exerts hegemonic force over the generation and propagation of ideas. And it abandons the close observance of national boundaries that has continued to defi ne the pa ram e ters of research into the origins of the conservative movement. The result is a narrative that examines how its central fi gures developed, explained, and justifi ed their beliefs; how they alternately infl uenced and opposed one another's opinions; how they navigated the perilous relationship between politics and philosophy; and how, over time, their assumptions and arguments discreetly but decisively transformed. It approaches ideas neither as abstractions that unfold in a realm wholly distinct from politics nor as mere tools that are invoked to engender a desired change.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 27