Reflections on the Revolution in France

What happens when a nation tries to rebuild itself from scratch? In this classic, Edmund Burke confronts the upheaval of the French Revolution and questions whether liberty can survive when tradition, inheritance, and established institutions are cast aside. The problem he addresses is not the desire for reform, but the belief that society can be remade by abstract theory alone. As monarchy, property, religion, and public credit are dismantled, this short shows how concentrated power and political violence replace the stability reform promised. Burke’s work ultimately argues that durable freedom depends on preserving inherited wisdom while correcting injustice, offering a defense of reform that protects order rather than destroying it.