The Conservative (Emerson)
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Conservative (Emerson)
| Full title | The Conservative |
|---|---|
| Author | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Published | 1841 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Emerson’s lecture sets the party of conservatism against the party of innovation and refuses to let either win: conservatism is always right about circumstance and inadequate about possibility, reform right in principle and often useless in practice — and the quarrel between them is the subject of civil history itself. |
The Conservative (Emerson)
Where I heard about it
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, March 2026, closing the Modern Conservatism section — the list’s one entry from outside the movement’s own canon, framing conservatism as a permanent human temper rather than a political programme. Full list: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.
About this edition
Not a book: a lecture delivered in Boston in December 1841, printed in The Dial in 1842 and collected in Nature, Addresses and Lectures.
Connections
- Ralph Waldo Emerson — the author.
- Transcendentalism — the movement he was lecturing from within.
- The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.