Russell Kirk

Russell Amos Kirk was an American political philosopher, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and novelist who influenced 20th century American conservatism. In 1953, he authored The Conservative Mind, which outlined and traced the development of socio-conservative thought in the works of Anglo-American tradition, such as those of Edmund Burke. The book helped establish the intellectual framework for a religious and humanistic understanding of conservatism in the postwar era. Kirk was the chief proponent of traditionalist conservatism.