Edmund Burke occupies a venerable position in the history of right-wing thought, often described by friend and foe alike as the father of modern conservatism. No doubt this would have surprised the opinionated Irishman, who largely saw himself as a practical politician, with nothing but disdain for pretentious intellectual scribblers. But no one gets to decide how history will remember them, if it deigns to, and Burke’s most enduring legacy has proven to be his extensive writings on politics and aesthetics.

Burkeanism is a mercurial and even intentionally ambiguous way of approaching the world, one that regards the human capacity to reason as fundamentally limited and consequently venerates established social relations and the wisdom allegedly embedded in tradition.

In many ways, it’s fundamentally anti-modern. And it has indelibly stamped the history of conservative thought.