Rights and Duties: Reflections on Our Conservative Constitution - Hardcover

Kirk, Russell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0965320820 ISBN 13: 9780965320825

Publisher: UNKNO, 1997

Synopsis

Transcending the commonplace that conservative constitutional interpretation is chained to the bare text of the document itself, the eminent political philosopher Russell Kirk lays the foundation for a conservative understanding of the "living Constitution" in a classic popular study of the social, cultural, and political inheritance of the American Founding. Respect for the country's "unwritten constitution"-the collective customs, mores, and conventions of the nation-will, Kirk argues, simultaneously restrain judges' temptations to social engineering from the bench and endow the Constitution with the flexibility necessary to survive the passage of decades and centuries. This reasoned and urbane contribution to our understanding of the Constitution confounds facile liberal-conservative dichotomies. First published in 1990 as The Conservative Constitution, this important book has been thoroughly revised and greatly expanded, with a new introduction by Russell Hittinger. One of Kirk's most original works, Rights and Duties draws a conservative portrait of "a revolution not made but prevented," of a Constitution owing more to British whiggery and the Common Law than to Locke and the Enlightenment.

About this title

About the Author:

Russell Kirk (1918-1994), the eminent literary and social critic, historian of ideas, and political philosopher, helped launch the modern conservative movement in 1953 with his landmark book The Conservative Mind. Dr. Kirk published more than thirty books, hundreds of articles, and award-winning fiction.

Review:

"Rights and Duties remains the single best volume written on our constitutional heritage and its contemporary ills." -- University Bookman

The Constitution's purpose was thoroughly conservative, Russell Kirk emphatically states. Rights and Duties is a collection of lectures and essays that examine conservative constitutional interpretations and concepts. Kirk views the Constitution through the eyes of Edmund Burke. Kirk firmly believes that the Constitution of the United States is both a written and wholly or partially unwritten document. He believes that the American Constitution has endured because it has not been deliberately altered. A majority of the first three parts of Rights and Duties concentrates on tracing the roots of the unwritten constitution. The information is in great detail and well documented, but other than history buffs, it can be difficult to maintain interest. For those who can sustain their attention, it is worth the wait. Rights and Duties is at its best when it creates controversy surrounding moral issues, the natural law and religion. Kirk begins to interject some of his own experiences with his theories to make his conservative arguments. He offers a conservative opinion on the separation of church and state and proceeds to give two cases that provide different interpretations of the establishment and free exercise provisions of the First Amendment. He argues that freedom to speak and publish were never absolute in America. Perhaps the most debatable inference in the book is that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments created deeply altered the Constitution. Kirk does not adequately explain why he is vehemently opposed to the Fourteenth Amendment. Is it because it has not been used to further conservative agendas? Does he believe that the United States should have continued to use unwritten law rather than courts and an Amendment? How does his natural law theory deal with race? Rights and Duties is a valuable book that for the most part will keep the readers glued to it. More Americans than conservatives would like to believe probably accept the premise that the constitution is conservative. Nevertheless, Kirk provides excellent political philosophy and arguments on a subject that is important to him. -- From Independent Publisher

About this edition

• Publisher: UNKNO
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0965320820
• ISBN 13: 9780965320825
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Muncy Mitchell S.