[An American historian, political theorist, novelist, journalist, and lecturer, Kirk was one of America's most eminent conservative intellectuals. His works have provided a major impetus to the conservative revival that has developed since the 1950s. In the following excerpt from a review of Reflections on History, Kirk offers high praise for Burckhardt as a wise and prescient historian.]

[Reflections on History] is a handsomely produced edition of lectures delivered a century ago by the great Swiss historian [which] contains an informative preface by Prof. Gottfried Dietze. As Dietze reminds us, Burckhardt did not desire to have his lectures published. Had his wish been respected, we should have lost a wise book.

The kernel of these reflections is Burckhardt's discussion of "the three powers": The state, religion, and culture. Since Burckhardt lectured, the power of the state has increased monstrously, the power of religion has decayed, the power of culture has fallen into a confused condition. So Burckhardt expected.

We find ourselves in a time when crisis succeeds crisis. Here Burckhardt, somewhat unexpectedly, lets cheerfulness break in. As he puts the matter in his lecture on "The Crisis of History":

Crises clear the ground, firstly of a host of institutions from which life has long since departed, and which, given their historical privilege, could not have been swept away in any other fashion. Further, of true pseudo-organisms which ought never to have existed, but which had nevertheless, in the course of time, gained a firm hold upon the fabric of life, and were, indeed, mainly to blame for the preference for mediocrity and the hatred of excellence. Crises also abolish the cumulative dread of "disturbance" and clear the way for strong personalities.

In 1980, any reflective man or woman, confronting crises political and intellectual, needs the philosophic habit of mind and the long-range views which a thorough knowledge of history may confer. To read Burckhardt is to be led toward such attainments.