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Russell Amos Kirk (October 19, 1918 – April 29, 1994) was an American
political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be Academia, academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized b ...
,
moralist Moralism is any philosophy with the central focus of applying moral judgements. The term is commonly used as a pejorative to mean "being overly concerned with making moral judgments or being illiberal in the judgments one makes". Moralism has s ...
,
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
,
social critic Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in particular with respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The orig ...
, and
literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
, known for his influence on 20th-century American conservatism. His 1953 book ''The Conservative Mind'' gave shape to the
postwar In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...
conservative movement in the U.S. It traced the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas of
Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...
. Kirk was considered the chief proponent of
traditionalist conservatism Traditionalist conservatism, often known as classical conservatism, is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes the importance of transcendent moral principles, manifested through certain natural laws to which society should adhere ...
. He was also an accomplished author of Gothic and ghost story fiction.


Life

Russell Kirk was born in
Plymouth, Michigan Plymouth is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, United States. The population was 9,370 at the 2020 census. The city of Plymouth is surrounded by Plymouth Township, but the two are administered autonomously. Plymouth is a western suburb of Metro ...
. He was the son of Russell Andrew Kirk, a railroad engineer, and Marjorie Pierce Kirk. Kirk obtained his B.A. at
Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
and a
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
at
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...
. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, he served in the American armed forces and corresponded with a libertarian writer,
Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...
, who helped to shape his early political thought. After reading Albert Jay Nock's book, ''
Our Enemy, the State ''Our Enemy, the State'' is the best-known book by libertarian author Albert Jay Nock, serving as a fundamental influence for the modern libertarian and American conservatism movements. Initially presented as a series of lectures at Bard College ...
'', he engaged in a similar correspondence with him. After the war, he attended the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
in Scotland. In 1953, he became the only American to be awarded the degree of
Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...
by that university. Kirk "laid out a post-World War II program for conservatives by warning them, 'A handful of individuals, some of them quite unused to moral responsibilities on such a scale, made it their business to extirpate the populations of
Nagasaki and Hiroshima The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
; we must make it our business to curtail the possibility of such snap decisions.'" Upon completing his studies, Kirk took up an academic position at his alma mater, Michigan State. He resigned in 1959, after having become disenchanted with the rapid growth in student number and emphasis on intercollegiate athletics and technical training at the expense of the traditional
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as La ...
. Thereafter he referred to Michigan State as "Cow College" or "Behemoth University." He later wrote that academic political scientists and sociologists were "as a breed—dull dogs". Late in life, he taught one semester a year at
Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private Conservatism in the United States, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was founded in 1844 by Abolitionism, abolitionists known as Free Will Baptists. Its missio ...
, where he was distinguished visiting professor of humanities. Kirk frequently published in two American conservative journals he helped found, ''
National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...
'' in 1955 and ''
Modern Age The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is appli ...
'' in 1957. He was the founding editor of the latter, 1957–59. Later he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the
Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the preside ...
, where he gave a number of lectures. After leaving Michigan State, Kirk returned to his ancestral home in Mecosta, Michigan, where he wrote the many books, academic articles, lectures, and the syndicated newspaper column (which ran for 13 years) by which he exerted his influence on American politics and intellectual life. In 1963, Kirk converted to Catholicism and married Annette Courtemanche; they had four daughters. She and Kirk became known for their hospitality, welcoming many political, philosophical, and literary figures in their Mecosta house (known as "Piety Hill"), and giving shelter to political refugees, hoboes, and others. Their home became the site of a sort of seminar on conservative thought for university students. Piety Hill now houses the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. After his conversion to Catholicism Kirk was a founding board member of Una Voce America. Kirk declined to drive, calling cars "mechanical
Jacobins , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...
", and would have nothing to do with television and what he called "electronic computers". Kirk did not always maintain a stereotypically "conservative" voting record. "Faced with the non-choice between
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and
Thomas Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: althou ...
in
1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in ...
, Kirk said no to empire and voted for
Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...
, the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...
candidate." In the 1976 presidential election, he voted for
Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...
. In 1992 he supported
Pat Buchanan Patrick Joseph Buchanan (; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, ...
's
primary challenge In U.S. politics, a primary challenge is when an incumbent holding elective office is challenged by a member of their own political party in a primary election. Such events, known informally as "being primaried," are noteworthy and not frequent i ...
to incumbent George H. W. Bush, serving as state chair of the Buchanan campaign in Michigan. Kirk was a contributor to '' Chronicles''. In 1989, he was presented with the
Presidential Citizens Medal The Presidential Citizens Medal is an award bestowed by the President of the United States. It is the second-highest civilian award in the United States and is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Established by executive order on N ...
by President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
.


Ideas


''The Conservative Mind''

''The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot'', the published version of Kirk's doctoral dissertation, contributed materially to the 20th century
Burke Burke is an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman Monarchy of Ireland, Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had ...
revival. It also drew attention to: * Conservative statesmen such as
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
,
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
, Fisher Ames,
George Canning George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the Uni ...
,
John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...
,
John Randolph of Roanoke John Randolph (June 2, 1773May 24, 1833), commonly known as John Randolph of Roanoke,''Roanoke'' refers to Roanoke Plantation in Charlotte County, Virginia, not to the city of the same name. was an American planter, and a politician from Virg ...
,
Joseph de Maistre Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his clo ...
,
Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation ...
, and
Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...
; * The conservative implications of writings by well-known authors such as
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lak ...
,
Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
,
Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wo ...
,
James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought ...
,
Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
,
James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...
,
George Gissing George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include '' The Nether World'' (1889), ''New Gru ...
,
George Santayana Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...
,
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...
, and T. S. Eliot; * British and American authors such as Fisher Ames,
John Randolph of Roanoke John Randolph (June 2, 1773May 24, 1833), commonly known as John Randolph of Roanoke,''Roanoke'' refers to Roanoke Plantation in Charlotte County, Virginia, not to the city of the same name. was an American planter, and a politician from Virg ...
,
Orestes Brownson Orestes Augustus Brownson (September 16, 1803 – April 17, 1876) was an American intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer. Brownson was a publicist, a career which spanned his affiliation with ...
,
John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, intellectual, philosopher, polymath, historian, writer, scholar and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and ...
,
Walter Bagehot Walter Bagehot ( ; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was an English journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race. He is known for co-founding the '' National Review'' in 185 ...
,
Henry James Sumner Maine Sir Henry James Sumner Maine, (15 August 1822 – 3 February 1888), was a British Whig comparative jurist and historian. He is famous for the thesis outlined in his book '' Ancient Law'' that law and society developed "from status to contract. ...
, William Edward Hartpole Lecky,
Edwin Lawrence Godkin Edwin Lawrence Godkin (2 October 183121 May 1902) was an Irish-born American journalist and newspaper editor. He founded ''The Nation'' and was the editor-in-chief of the '' New York Evening Post'' from 1883 to 1899.Eric Fettman, "Godkin, E.L." ...
, William Hurrell Mallock,
Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellect ...
,
Albert Venn Dicey Albert Venn Dicey, (4 February 1835 – 7 April 1922), usually cited as A. V. Dicey, was a British Whig jurist and constitutional theorist. He is most widely known as the author of ''Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution ...
, Robert Nisbet, Paul Elmer More, and
Irving Babbitt Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thou ...
. ''The Portable Conservative Reader'' (1982), which Kirk edited, contains sample writings by most of the above. Biographer Bradley J. Birzer argues that for all his importance in inspiring the modern conservative movement, not many of his followers agreed with his unusual approach to the history of conservatism. As summarized by reviewer Drew Maciag: :As Birzer's study demonstrates, Kirk's understanding of conservatism was so unique, idiosyncratic, transcendental, elitist, and in certain respects premodern and European, that it bore little resemblance to political conservatism in the United States. ''Conservative Mind'' successfully launched an intellectual challenge to postwar liberalism, but the variety of conservatism Kirk preferred found few takers, even within the American Right. Harry Jaffa (a student of
Leo Strauss Leo Strauss (, ; September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was a German-American political philosopher who specialized in classical political philosophy. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Strauss later emigrated from Germany to the United States. ...
) wrote: "Kirk was a poor Burke scholar. Burke's attack on metaphysical reasoning related only to modern philosophy's attempt to eliminate skeptical doubt from its premises and hence from its conclusions." Russello (2004) argues that Kirk adapted what 19th-century American Catholic thinker
Orestes Brownson Orestes Augustus Brownson (September 16, 1803 – April 17, 1876) was an American intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer. Brownson was a publicist, a career which spanned his affiliation with ...
called "territorial democracy" to articulate a version of federalism that was based on premises that differ in part from those of the founders and other conservatives. Kirk further believed that territorial democracy could reconcile the tension between treating the states as mere provinces of the central government, and as autonomous political units independent of Washington. Finally, territorial democracy allowed Kirk to set out a theory of individual rights grounded in the particular historical circumstances of the United States, while rejecting a universal conception of such rights. In addition to bringing public attention to Anglo-American conservative principles, Kirk described his perception of liberal ideals in the first chapter. Kirk identified these ideals as the perfectibility of man, hostility towards tradition, rapid change in economic and political systems, and the secularization of government.


Principles

Kirk developed six "canons" of conservatism, which Russello (2004) described as follows: # A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition,
divine revelation In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
, or
natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
; # An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence; # A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize "natural" distinctions; # A belief that
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
and
freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving one ...
are closely linked; # A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and # A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence. Kirk said that Christianity and Western Civilization are "unimaginable apart from one another" and that "all culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief."


Kirk and libertarianism

Kirk grounded his Burkean conservatism in tradition, political philosophy, ''
belles lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...
'', and the strong religious faith of his later years, rather than
libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
and
free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
economic reasoning. ''The Conservative Mind'' hardly mentions economics at all. In a polemic, Kirk, quoting T. S. Eliot's expression, called libertarians "chirping sectaries," adding that conservatives and libertarians share opposition to "collectivism," "the totalist state," and "bureaucracy," but otherwise have "nothing" in common. He called the libertarian movement "an ideological clique forever splitting into sects still smaller and odder, but rarely conjugating." He said a line of division exists between believers in "some sort of transcendent moral order" and "utilitarians admitting no transcendent sanctions for conduct." He included libertarians in the latter category. Kirk, therefore, questioned the "fusionism" between libertarians and traditional conservatives that marked much of post-World War II conservatism in the United States. Kirk also argued that libertarians "bear no authority, temporal or spiritual" and do not "venerate ancient beliefs and customs, or the natural world, or
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...
country, or the immortal spark in
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...
fellow men." However, Kirk's view of
classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econom ...
s is positive. He agrees with them on "ordered liberty" as they make "common cause with regular conservatives against the menace of democratic despotism and economic collectivism."
Tibor R. Machan Tibor Richard Machan (; 18 March 1939 – 24 March 2016) was a Hungarian-American philosopher. A professor emeritus in the department of philosophy at Auburn University, Machan held the R. C. Hoiles Chair of Business Ethics and Free Enterpri ...
defended libertarianism in response to Kirk's original Heritage Lecture. Machan argued that the right of individual sovereignty is perhaps most worthy of conserving from the American political heritage, and that when conservatives themselves talk about preserving some tradition, they cannot at the same time claim a disrespectful distrust of the individual human mind, of rationalism itself. Jacob G. Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation also responded to Kirk.


Kirk and South Africa

In a column in ''The National Review'' on 9 March 1965 entitled "'One Man, One Vote' in South Africa," Kirk wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence on voting "will work mischief—much injuring, rather than fulfilling, the responsible democracy for which Tocqueville hoped," but in the case of South Africa "this degradation of the democratic dogma, if applied, would bring anarchy and the collapse of civilization." Kirk wrote that "the 'European' element akesSouth Africa the only 'modern' and prosperous African country." He added that "Bantu political domination f South Africawould be domination by witch doctors (still numerous and powerful) and reckless demagogues" and that "Bantu and Coloreds and Indians must feel that they have some political voice in the South African commonwealth."


Kirk and neoconservatism

Late in life, Kirk grew disenchanted with American
neoconservatives Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and cou ...
as well. As ''Chronicles'' editor Scott Richert describes it:
ne linehelped define the emerging struggle between neoconservatives and paleoconservatives. "Not seldom has it seemed," Kirk declared, "as if some eminent Neoconservatives mistook Tel Aviv for the capital of the United States." A few years later, in another Heritage Foundation speech, Kirk repeated that line verbatim. In the wake of the Gulf War, which he had opposed, he clearly understood that those words carried even greater meaning.
He also commented the neoconservatives were "often clever, never wise." Midge Decter, Jewish director of the
Committee for the Free World The Committee for the Free World was a neoconservative anti-Communist think tank in the United States.John Ehrman, ''The Rise of Neoconservatism: Intellectuals and Foreign Affairs, 1945-1994'', Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 139-14/ref> Overview ...
, called Kirk's remark "a bloody outrage, a piece of
anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
by Kirk that impugns the loyalty of neoconservatives." She told
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
, "It's this notion of a Christian civilization. You have to be part of it or you're not really fit to conserve anything. That's an old line and it's very ignorant."
Samuel T. Francis called Kirk's "Tel Aviv" remark "a wisecrack about the slavishly pro-Israel sympathies among neoconservatives." He described Decter's response as untrue, "reckless" and "vitriolic." Furthermore, he argued that such a denunciation "always plays into the hands of the left, which is then able to repeat the charges and claim conservative endorsement of them.


Kirk and the Gulf War

Toward the end of his life, Russell Kirk was highly critical of Republican militarism. President Bush, Kirk said, had embarked upon "a radical course of intervention in the region of the
Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bo ...
". Excerpts from Russell Kirk's lectures at the Heritage Foundation (1992):


Man of letters

Kirk's other important books include ''Eliot and his Age: T. S. Eliot's Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century'' (1972), ''The Roots of American Order'' (1974), and the autobiographical ''Sword of the Imagination: Memoirs of a Half Century of Literary Conflict'' (1995). As was the case with his hero
Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...
, Kirk became renowned for the prose style of his intellectual and polemical writings.Nash (1998).


Fiction

Beyond his scholarly achievements, Kirk was talented both as an oral storyteller and as an author of
genre fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A nu ...
, most notably in his telling of consummate
ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
in the classic tradition of Sheridan Le Fanu, M. R. James, Oliver Onions, and
H. Russell Wakefield Herbert Russell Wakefield (1888 – 2 August 1964) was an English short-story writer, novelist, publisher, and civil servant chiefly remembered today for his ghost stories. Life Wakefield was the third of four children of the clergyman Henry Rus ...
. He also wrote other admired and much-anthologized works that are variously classified as horror, fantasy, science fiction, and
political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where s ...
. These earned him plaudits from fellow creative writers as varied and distinguished as T. S. Eliot, Robert Aickman,
Madeleine L'Engle Madeleine L'Engle DStJ (; November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including '' A Wrinkle in Time'' and its sequels: ''A Wind in the Door'', ''A Swiftly Tilting Plan ...
, and
Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and ...
. Though modest in quantity—it encompasses three novels and 22
short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
—Kirk's body of fiction was written amid a busy career as prolific
nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...
writer,
editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...
, and
speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...
. As with such other
speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nat ...
authors as G. K. Chesterton,
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univer ...
, and J. R. R. Tolkien (all of whom likewise wrote only nonfiction for their " day jobs"), there are
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
undercurrents—
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
,
cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.T ...
,
religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
, and
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
—to Kirk's fiction. Kirk stated in 1984 that the purpose of his stories as:
"The political ferocity of our age is sufficiently dismaying: men of letters need not conjure up horrors worse than those suffered during the past decade by the Cambodians and Ugandans, Afghans and Ethiopians. What I have attempted, rather, are experiments in the moral imagination. Readers will encounter elements of parable and fable...some clear premise is about the character of human existence...a healthy concept of the character of evil..."
His first novel, ''Old House of Fear'' (1961, 1965), as with so many of his short stories, was written in a self-consciously
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
vein. Here the plot is concerned with an American assigned by his
employer Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any o ...
to a bleak locale in rural Scotland—the same country where Kirk had attended
graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...
. This was Kirk's most
commercially Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
successful and critically acclaimed fictional work, doing much to sustain him financially in subsequent years. ''Old House of Fear'' was inspired by the novels of
John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career ...
and Kirk's own Scottish heritage. The story of ''Old House of Fear'' concerns an young American, Hugh Logan, a World War II veteran who is both brave and sensitive, sent to buy Carnglass, a remote island in the Hebrides. Upon reaching the island, he discovers that the island's owner, Lady MacAskival and her beautiful adopted daughter Mary are being held hostage by foreign spies, who are presumably working for the Soviet Union, out to sabotage a nearby NATO base. The leader of the spies is Dr. Jackman, an evil genius and nihilist intent upon wrecking a world that failed to acknowledge his greatness and whom reviewers noted was a much more vividly drawn character than the hero Logan. Dr. Jackman appears to be a prototype of Kirk's best known character, Mandred Arcane, with the only difference being the former has no values while the latter does. Later novels were ''A Creature of the Twilight'' (1966), a
dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
satirizing Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
postcolonial African politics; and ''Lord of the Hollow Dark'' (1979, 1989), set in Scotland, which explores the great
evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
inhabiting a
haunted house A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the prope ...
. ''A Creature of the Twilight'' concerns the adventures in Africa of a reactionary, romantic mercenary Mandred Arcane, a self-proclaimed mixture of Machiavelli and Sir Lancelot, who is an anachronistic survival of the Victorian Age who does not belong in the modern world and yet defiantly still exists, making him the "creature of the twilight". Kirk has Arcane write his pseudo-memoir in a consciously Victorian style to underline that he does not belong in the 1960s. Arcane is both a dapper intellectual and a hardened man of action, an elderly man full of an unnatural vigor, who is hired by the son of the assassinated Sultan to put down a Communist rebellion in the fictional African nation of Hamnegri, which he does despite overwhelming odds. In 1967, Kirk published a short story "Belgrummo's Hell" about a clever art thief who unwisely tries to rob the estate of the ancient Scottish warlock, Lord Belgrummo, who is later revealed to be Arcane's father. In another short story published in the same collection, "The Peculiar Demesne of Archvicar Gerontion" concerned a wizard, Archvicar Gerontion, who tries to kill Arcane by casting deadly spells. The ''Lord of the Hollow Dark'' is set at the same Belgrummo estate first encountered in "Belgrummo's Hell" where an evil cult led by the
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
-like character Apollinax have assembled to secure for themselves the "Timeless Moment" of eternal sexual pleasure by sacrificing two innocents, an young woman named Marina and her infant daughter in an ancient warren called the Weem under the Belgrummo Estate. Assisting Apollinax is Archvicar Gerontion, who is really Arcane in disguise. Inspired by the novels of H.P. Lovecraft, Kirk in the ''Lord of the Hollow Dark'' has Arcane survive a "horrid chthonian pilgrimage" as he faces dark supernatural forces, confront his own family's history of evil, and refuse the appeal of a "seductive, hubristic immorality". The novel concludes with Arcane's own definition of a true "Timeless Moment" which he states: "it comes from faith, from hope, from charity; from having your work in the world; from the happiness of the people you love; or simply as a gift of grace". During his lifetime, Kirk also oversaw the publication of three collections which together encompassed all his short stories. (Three more such collections have been published posthumously, but those only
reprint A reprint is a re- publication of material that has already been previously published. The term ''reprint'' is used with slightly different meanings in several fields. Academic publishing In academic publishing, offprints, sometimes also known ...
stories found in the earlier volumes. One such posthumous collection, ''Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales'', was edited by his student, friend, and collaborator Vigen Guroian, and includes both an essay by Kirk on 'ghostly tales' and Guroian's own analysis of the stories as well as Kirk's motives in writing them.) Many of Kirk's short stories, especially the ghost stories, were set in either Scotland or in the rural parts of his home state of Michigan. Among his novels and stories, certain characters tend to recur, enriching the already considerable unity and resonance of his
fictional canon In fiction, canon is the material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story by its fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction. The alternative terms mythology, tim ...
. Though—through their
themes Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
and
prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the fo ...
-style—Kirk's fiction and nonfiction works are complementary, many readers of the one have not known of his work in the other. Having begun to write fiction fairly early in his career, Kirk appears to have stopped after the early 1980s, while continuing his nonfiction writing and research through his last year of life. For a comprehensive bibliography of his fiction, see the fiction section of his bibliography.


See also

* Russell Kirk - Wikiquote


Bibliography


References


Further reading

* Attarian, John, 1998, "Russell Kirk's Political Economy," ''Modern Age 40'': 87–97. . * Birzer, Bradley J. ''Russell Kirk: American Conservative'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2015). 574 pp. * Brown, Charles C. ed. ''Russell Kirk: A Bibliography'' (2nd ed. 2011: Wilmington, ISI Books, 2011) 220 pages; replaces Brown's 1981 bibliography * * East, John P., 1984, "Russell Kirk as a Political Theorist: Perceiving the Need for Order in the Soul and in Society," ''Modern Age 28'': 33–44. . * * Guroian, Vigen. ''Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales.'' Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. . * * Filler, Louis. "'The Wizard of Mecosta': Russell Kirk of Michigan," ''Michigan History'', Vol 63 No 5 (Sept–Oct 1979). * Fuller, Edmund. 'A Genre for Exploring the Reality of Evil." ''Wall Street Journal,'' July 23, 1979. * Hennelly, Mark M. Jr., "Dark World Enough and Time," ''Gothic, Vol 2 No 1 (June 1980). * Herron, Don. "The crepuscular Romantic: An Apprfeciation of the Fiction of Russell Kirk," The Romantist'', No 3 (1979). * Kirk, Russell, "Introduction: The Canon of Ghostly Tales" in ''The Scallion Stone'' by Canon basil A. Smith. Chapel Hill, NC: Whispers Press, 1980. * Herron, Don. "Russell Kirk: Ghost Master of Mecosta" in Darrell Schweitzer (ed) ''Discovering Modern Horror Fiction'', Merce Is, WA: Starmont House, July 1985, pp. 21–47. * Kirk, Russell, 1995. ''The Sword of Imagination: Memoirs of a Half-Century of Literary Conflict''. Kirk's memoirs. * McDonald, W. Wesley, 1982. ''The Conservative Mind of Russell Kirk: `The Permanent Things' in an Age of Ideology''. Ph.D. dissertation,
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
. Citation: DAI 1982 43(1): 255-A. DA8213740. Online at
ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...
Dissertations & Theses. * --------, 1983, "Reason, Natural Law, and Moral Imagination in the Thought of Russell Kirk," ''Modern Age 27'': 15–24. . * --------, 2004. ''Russell Kirk and The Age of Ideology.'' University of Missouri Press. * --------, 1999. "Russell Kirk and the Prospects for Conservatism," ''Humanitas'' XII: 56–76. * --------, 2006. "Kirk, Russell (1918–94)," in ''American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia'' ISI Books: 471–474. Biographical entry. * McCleod, Aaron. ''Great Conservative Minds: A Condensation of Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind"'' (Alabama Policy Institute, 2005) 71pp; detailed page-by-page synopsis * Nash, George H., 1998. ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America''. * Person, Jr., James E., 1999. "Russell Kirk: A Critical Biography of a Conservative Mind". Madison Books. * Pournelle, Jerry, "Uncanny Tales of the Moral Imagination," ''University Bookman'', Summer 1979, Vol XIX, No 4. * Russell, Gerald J., 1996, "The Jurisprudence of Russell Kirk," ''Modern Age 38'': 354–63. . Reviews Kirk's writings on law, 1976–93, exploring his notion of
natural law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
, his emphasis on the importance of the English
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...
tradition, and his theories of change and continuity in
legal history Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and histo ...
. * --------, 2007. "The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk". University of Missouri Press. * --------, 1999, "Time and Timeless: the Historical Imagination of Russell Kirk," ''Modern Age 41'': 209–19. . * --------, 2004, "Russell Kirk and Territorial Democracy," ''Publius 34'': 109–24. . * Steiger, Brad. "A Note on Ghostly Phenomena in Russell Kirk's Old House at Mecosta, Michigan." ''Strange Powers of E.D.P.'', NY: Belmont Books, 1969. * Sturgeon, Theodore, "A Viewpoint, a Dewpoint," ''National review'', vol XIV No 6, Feb 12, 1963. * Whitney, Gleaves, 2001, "The Swords of Imagination: Russell Kirk's Battle with Modernity," ''Modern Age 43'': 311–20. . Argues that Kirk used five "swords of imagination": historical, political, moral, poetic, and prophetic.


See also

* '' The Imaginative Conservative'': A Resource for those wishing to learn more about Kirk and his thought


External links


The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal

Works by Russell Kirk
at
Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

Russell Kirk's articles
at ''Crisis Magazine''


Traverse magazine profile of Russell Kirk by John J. Miller

The Neoconservatives: An Endangered Species
Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the preside ...
lecture 178, December 15, 1988. * *
Speech by Russell Kirk on March 21, 1968 on American conservatives
Audio recording fro
The University of Alabama's Emphasis Symposium on Contemporary Issues
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Russell 1918 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century Roman Catholics Alumni of the University of St Andrews American anti-war activists American fantasy writers American horror writers American literary critics American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American military personnel of World War II American political philosophers American political writers American traditionalist Catholics Catholics from Michigan Converts to Roman Catholicism Critics of atheism Critics of neoconservatism Critics of Marxism Duke University alumni Ghost story writers The Heritage Foundation Historians of the United States Michigan State University alumni Military personnel from Michigan National Review people Non-interventionism Novelists from Michigan Paleoconservatism People from Plymouth, Michigan Presidential Citizens Medal recipients Social critics Traditionalist Catholic writers World Fantasy Award-winning writers Writers of Gothic fiction Historians from Michigan American expatriates in the United Kingdom