SOURCE: Zoll, Donald Atwell. “The Social Thought of Russell Kirk.” Political Science Reviewer 2 (fall 1972): 112-36.

In the following essay, Zoll presents an overview of Kirk's conservative writings, concluding that Kirk is a neo-Platonist who balances his Roman Catholic faith with conservative social beliefs.

It is not merely an obvious affection for Edmund Burke that links Russell Kirk with the eighteenth century. His emergence in the arena of contemporary letters reveals the transmigration of an eighteenth century spirit, the revival of the literary grace and versatility of the century of the high baroque. He personifies the still lively arete of a more leisurely age, the urbane versatility of the literati of the era of Addison and Steel, Swift, Pope, Chesterfield, Johnson and Burke.

Such diverse interests and talents are manifest in the character and range of Kirk's works. These volumes exhibit Kirk in three major roles: (a) the historian...