Friends until the end Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the age of revolution

The tensions of a dawning democratic era are dissected in this incisive dual biography of two celebrated 18th-century British statesmen. Journalist Grant (Bagehot) recaps the careers of Burke, a sober, middle-class political writer known for his scathing oratory, and Fox, a charming, dissolute aristocrat who ran up gambling debts and married a prostitute. The two became fast friends while championing progressive causes--they both sympathized with the American Revolution and condemned slavery--but fell out over the French Revolution. Fox embraced it as the apotheosis of liberty, but Burke was appalled by the overthrow of the monarchy, Catholic Church, and aristocracy. Burke argued that these hierarchical institutions were a vital, organic part of society and predicted that the revolutionary doctrines of rationalism, equality, and universal rights would lead France into bloody despotism. Burke's abhorrence of "tyrannical democracy" can sound obsolete today, but Grant argues cogently that his writings yielded penetrating insights into the new political world. ("A war of ideology financed by paper money and sustained by mass conscription-- had anticipated not only the French Revolution but also the modern age itself.") Grant paints a colorful portrait of an erudite Parliament wrestling with grand questions amid corruption, war, the occasional duel, and some of history's wittiest repartee. It's an entertaining and perceptive account of a watershed in the West's political development. (Aug.)

Two men in turbulent times. Financial journalist Grant delves into the roiling politics of 18th-century England with his dual biography of statesmen Edmund Burke (1729-97) and Charles James Fox (1749-1806). Burke, the son of an Irish lawyer, and Fox, heir to a rich English political family, were friends for several decades. Both were Whigs in the House of Commons; both ardently supported the American Revolution and the impeachment of a governor general of the East India Company on charges of mismanagement. But their sharply differing views on the French Revolution shattered their friendship. Fox, a Francophile, saw the revolution as glorious; Burke denounced it. Outspoken, personally charming, fearless in asserting their views, they emerged from vastly different backgrounds. Fox, precocious and coddled, entered Eton when he was 9 and matriculated at Oxford at 15. Leaving in 1766 after two years, he embarked on a two-year grand tour. In Europe, when he won election to Parliament, he blithely continued his travels. On a family vacation to Paris when he was a teenager, he developed an attraction to gambling, which became a lifelong compulsion. He lived, Grant notes, from bankruptcy to bankruptcy. After graduating from Trinity College, in 1750, Burke arrived in London to study law. At the age of 28, just before his first book was published, he married. He was a founding member of Samuel Johnson's Literary Club, along with Sir Joshua Reynolds and Oliver Goldsmith. A reputed womanizer, Fox, at age 46, secretly married the prostitute with whom he had been living. Grant depicts the political rivalries and debates to which both men responded: Burke in writings that lay the groundwork of modern conservatism; Fox with ideals that inspired generations of 19th-century politicians. A lively history informed by deep research. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.