This book offers a reading of Burke that wrests him from his typical defenders and detractors in a way that is provocative and profoundly compelling. By illuminating Burke's political reflections through the lens of his aesthetic writings on the sublime, White brilliantly reveals Burke to be a thinker who offers political and ethical insights of great significance for contemporary reflections on the dangers and possibilities of modernity. This is White's most artfully written book, and it further establishes him as one of the freshest theorists writing today. His thinking cuts across the boundaries of pre-modernism, modernism, and post-modernism in ways which offer a perspective that is invaluable for political reflection and usually concealed by less subtle intellects.

Romand Coles, Duke University

Excellent ... written from a depth of engagement impossible to fake.

David Bromwich, Yale University, Political Theory

White enriches our understanding of how aesthetics came to structure the whole of Burke's critique of modernity.

Linda M. G. Zerilli, Northwestern University, American Political Science Review