Yuval: My favorite Burke biography is Edmund Burke and His World by Alice P. Miller (no relation). Published in 1979, it’s now out of print. It’s not the most probing analysis of his thought, but it presents the facts and events of his life in a clear narrative–his early years in Dublin, his friendships with Johnson, Goldsmith, and Reynolds, his life as a politician, his views on America, the Hastings trial, etc. The author moves along at a good clip. Anybody who doesn’t already know a lot about Burke will learn plenty. A more recent Burke bio is F.P. Lock’s ridiculously expensive two-volume treatment, published by Oxford. I’ve found it useful for dipping into, but haven’t read it cover to cover.

What we need now is a short book that covers both Burke’s life and thought and shows 21st-century conservatives why all of this fussing over the French Revolution still matters. Maybe a Brookhiser-style treatment.