British statesman parliamentary orator, and political thinker prominent in public life from 1765 to about 1795 and important in the history of political theory. He championed conservatism in opposition to Jacobinism in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
In the 19th century Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals. Subsequently, in the 20th century, he became widely regarded as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism.