Who was Russell Kirk?
Russell Kirk came from Plymouth, Michigan, where he was born in 1918. After Michigan State and Duke he earned a doctorate in Scotland, at St Andrews. His thesis turned into The Conservative Mind (1953), a survey of conservative thinkers running from Burke to Eliot. He then made his home in the village of Mecosta, producing books, essays and ghost tales. For a quarter of a century he wrote for National Review, and he launched the journals Modern Age and The University Bookman. In later life he became a Catholic. He died in 1994.
Political views
- Believed there is a lasting moral order, and that conservatives should hold to custom, convention and continuity.Source: kirkcenter.org
- Said policy should be led by prudence, which means weighing the likely long-term results of a measure above its popularity today.Source: kirkcenter.org
- Saw freedom and property as closely tied, and held that owning property also brings duties.Source: kirkcenter.org
- Favoured voluntary community and said decisions that affect people most directly should be taken locally, not by distant authority.Source: kirkcenter.org
- Counted established religion among the traditions worth keeping.Source: plato.stanford.edu
- Criticised the 1991 Gulf War, and in 1992 chaired Pat Buchanan's primary challenge in Michigan.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- Opposed forced collectivism, and held that a central administration cannot give justice and prosperity to people who have lost their old responsibilities.Source: kirkcenter.org
- Asked for sensible limits on power and on human passions, and said that conservatism should not be mistaken for a creed or a fixed set of doctrines.Source: kirkcenter.org
Legacy
Kirk is credited with giving American conservatism a history and a set of ideas, and with helping launch the modern movement, together with William F. Buckley Jr. In 1989 Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. Admirers value how much weight he put on culture, community and the moral imagination. Critics, among them the philosopher Harry Jaffa, disputed his reading of Burke. Libertarians and neoconservatives often objected to his suspicion of ideology, markets and military adventures abroad.
In their own words
“In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily.”