The Great Debate

An acclaimed portrait of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the origins of modern conservatism and liberalism 

“In a Burkean manner, Mr. Levin enriches through wisdom rather than prescription.” —Washington Post 

In The Great Debate, Yuval Levin explores the roots of the left/right political divide in America by examining the views of the men who best represented each side at its origin: Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Burke and Paine were utterly fascinating and divisive figures, both active in politics, versed in philosophy, and two of the most effective and powerful political writers and polemicists in the history of the English-speaking world.

Striving to forge a new political path in the tumultuous age of the American and French revolutions, these two ideological titans sparred over moral and philosophical questions about the nature of political life and the best approach to social change: radical and swift, or gradual and incremental. The division they articulated continues to shape our political life today.  

Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only the basis of our political order but the controversies that fuel Washington's divisiveness, The Great Debate offers a profound examination of what conservatism, progressivism, and the debate between them truly amount to.