The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk

by Gerald J. Russello

Author of The Conservative Mind , Russell Kirk (1918–1994) was a principal architect of the American intellectual conservative movement. This book takes a closer look at his works on such subjects as law, history, economics, and statesmanship to introduce a new generation of readers to the depth and range of his thought. Kirk probed the very meaning of conservatism for modern intellectuals, and in The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk, Gerald Russello examines such key concepts of his thought as imagination, historical consciousness, the interplay between the individual and tradition, and the role of narrative in constructing individual and societal identity. By stressing the importance of Kirk’s perception of imagination, he offers a new approach to understanding him, showing not only that Kirk laid the groundwork for the “new conservatism” of the 1950s and ’60s, but also that his work evolved into a sophisticated critique of modernity paralleled in the work of some postmodern critics of liberalism. In order to reconstruct Kirk’s attack on modernity, Russello examines his textbook on economics, his fiction, his work on Robert Taft and Orestes Brownson, his writings on the role of the statesman, and his neglected essays such as “The Age of Discussion” and “The Age of Sentiments.” Russello shows that Kirk welcomed the rise of some form of postmodernism, seeing in it a new opportunity for conservatism to engage the wider culture. Through this analysis, he situates Kirk within wider currents of contemporary thought, connecting him not only with such major thinkers as Lyotard, Boorstin, and Koestler but also with such lesser-known figures as Bernard Iddings Bell, Charles Baudouin, and Christopher Dawson. By examining Kirk’s development of the imagination as a tool of conservative discourse, Russello offers an alternative genealogy for conservative thought that melds its antimodernism with postmodern themes. He has forged a lively and provocative work that provides unusual perspectives on Kirk within the wider context of debate over the future of conservatism in a time of shifting alliances—a book that will be a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand Kirk or conservative thought.

 

Genres: Philosophy

264 pages, Hardcover

First published June 29, 2007

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerald Russello was one of the few interesting conservative writers out there. I admired a lot of his writing and explication of a conservative philosophical viewpoint. This type of conservative space is not really compatible with the predominant talkshow rage-machine world of conservatism, though membership and affiliation between both spaces is often porous. Still, Russello was someone I enjoyed reading, and who had interesting things to say that were worth contemplating. He passed away not too long ago, which was really saddening for me. He’s among my favorite conservative writers, along with Samuel Goldman and John Lukacs. Before he passed away I asked Russello if he had read Matthew McManus’s “The Rise of Post-modern Conservatism: Neoliberalism, Post-Modern Culture, and Reactionary Politics” and he replied that he was in the process of writing a review of it. Unfortunately he passed away before completing the review (to my knowledge). But reading this book about Russell Kirk alongside McManus’s book makes for a really interesting comparison on the topic of post-modernism and conservative politics, and Russello was someone who I know would have had a very interesting take on it.

However, I can’t say I agree at all with what seems to have been Russello’s tacit belief that conservatism would make the type of “post-modern” breakthrough hoped for by Russell Kirk (I agree more with McManus’s analysis of post-modernism and its influence on the last few decades of culture and conservative politics).

Anyway, if you’re interested in the world of conservative intellectual history, this is not a bad place to look. Russello is someone who was intimately familiar with the thought of Russell Kirk and the ideas that occupied his writing. I think there is a little bit too much explication of Kirk’s thought via other writers (instead of through the evidence of Kirk’s own writing), but the parts where he brings Kirk in dialogue with himself and with his other writings/influences is where the book really shines.

If you have a fascination with conservative intellectuals, especially Russell Kirk, you might enjoy this. Otherwise this is mostly just for the nerds like me.