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Michael Oakeshott: born on this date

For those who’ve never read that most subtle, cultivated, humane and refined of minds Michael Oakeshott’s concerns resonate as deeply as ever. For the novice, I’d recommend his mid-career Rationalism in Politics, a most elegant collection of essays. A more difficult, but for me the vital underpinning cutting across all his work, is his equally elegant and…

Michael Oakeshott on the History of Political Thought

What did Oakeshott mean by the “history of political thought”? This is the question Martyn Thompson addresses in his essay “Michael Oakeshott on the History of Political Thought.” He highlights two features of Oakeshott’s conception: first, that the historical past is a construction of the historian, and therefore the meaning of any given historical text…

Oakeshott: born on this day

For those who’ve never read that most subtle, cultivated, humane and refined of minds Michael Oakeshott’s concerns resonate as deeply as ever. For the novice, I’d recommend his mid-career Rationalism in Politics, a most elegant collection of essays. A more difficult, but for me the vital underpinning cutting across all his work, is his equally elegant and…

Conservative Moments

One of the contributors to this volume, the very excellent historian of ideas Efraim Podoksik, has alerted me to this about-to-be published title. Don’t let the typos on Bloomsbury’s page detract you. Conservatismefraim podoksikhistory of political thoughtLiberalismMark GarnettMichael OakeshottPolitical philosophy