Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was born to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. He studied in both Catholic and Protestant institutions in Ireland, then studied law in London. He initially had literary ambitions, serving as editor of the literary review Annual Register from 1758 to about 1765, but thereafter began taking positions in government service. The most consequential of these was his role as secretary to Whig leader Lord Rockingham, beginning in 1765, the same year when Burke himself was elected to the House of Commons. He remained in the House until retirement in 1794. Burke wrote polemical materials and speeches for the Rockingham Whigs, often criticizing policies in the American colonies and in British India. He also supported the lifting of restrictions on Catholics in Ireland. However, he has always been most remembered for his anti-revolutionary writings, including Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and Letters on a Regicide Peace (1795-7). Burke’s other writings include A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and A Vindication of Natural Society (1756).