The Roots of American Order

Russell Kirk was perhaps the most distinguished American conservative writer of the twentieth century. His life's pursuit was the question of order: how can society maintain the balance between freedom and license, community and individual. In later works, Kirk turned to the question of how modern society can retain an allegiance to the permanent things in the face of decay. THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN ORDER is a massive study that is in many respects the culmination of Kirk's life's work. Tracing the concept of order from ancient times to nineteenth century America, Kirk highlights those thinkers and ages have provided the United States with her institutions. Starting with the ancient Israelites and ending with Orestes Brownson (the American Burke who, like Kirk, was a convert to Catholicism) Kirk distills the influence of each on American life. In a sense there are four cities that influenced America: Jerusalem, Athens, Rome and London. Kirk even claims some for the American cause that you might not suspect have a role in a conservative history of culture. Kirk rescues Hume from the caricature of the great skeptic. Instead, Hume is the moderate skeptic who demolished the rationalist pretenses of the philosophes. Kirk argues that the founders (including Jefferson) were fundamentally conservative; practical men seeking to preserve the heritage of English culture and institutions rather than create a system of government from scratch like the French revolutionaries. This book isn't perfect. I have it on good authority that Kirk was in error in describing the levelers of Cromwell's time as egalitarians. There are some organizational problems as well, such as the section on the Crusades. How that episode of history was a factor in America's order isn't exactly made clear. Russell Kirk is an important thinker who has certainly not been given his due, particularly by the contemporary conservative movement. Too much interested in the permanent things, Kirk's genteel writings are out of place in the "take no prisoners" world of contemporary conservative journalism. However, there are some signs of a revival of interest in Kirk's thought, most recently by Wes McDonald's recent study. A more basic statement of his creed can be found in his work THE AMERICAN CAUSE. This edition contains an interesting, albeit too brief, introduction by the distinguished historian Forrest McDonald.

Kirk's Roots is a tour de force of the Western tradition. It is simply one of the finest surveys of the classical, religious, and European influences on American political thought ever composed. An erudite jem of prose for both general readers and scholars.

My first Kirk book, "The Roots of American Order" stands as one of the most influential books I have read, and turned me into an instant fan of his writings. In an age when citizens are searching what it is to be an American, this book describes its vast and rich history and offers remedies for the future. Its scope stretches the history of the western hemisphere but its readability is surprisingly lucid. If anyone has a chance to grab this rare document I highly recommend securing it and treasuring its infinite wisdom. This is a book I wish all I know could have a copy.

During my tenure in college (1990-94) as a history/political science major, no other book had as profound an effect on my intellectual development than Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order. This, not the Conservative Mind, is his finest hour (alas, he died a few years back). It is an easy read but one that you will return to time and again as a reference work; it will also stimulate your interest in the works and authors discussed therein. While many liberal scholars will scoff at Kirk's wide-eyed prose and tendency towards ignoring any contradictory evidence (two of his ocasional flaws as a writer), if you are a conservative or libertarian, your intellectual mouth will water.

For its genre, it's very difficult to beat Kirk's masterful historical survey of the spiritual, intellectual, and cultural sources of American order. Spanning from the ancient Judaic roots of Western religion, through the patrimony of the artful Greeks and law-giving Romans, through the "Light of the Middle Ages" and the sources of English Constitutional Law, right up to the Founding of American Constitutionalism, Kirk's erudition is scholarly while being easy to understand. Almost like a novel at times though never trite or careless, this is an excellent summary of the high points of Western Civilization. Kirk gives the impression that he has forgotten more than most of us will ever know. This is a perfect book for home-schoolers, American history teachers, or the average layman who wishes simply to make sense of the daunting rise and fall of civilizations that has led to the founding of the United States of America.