This is a new edition of Edmund Burke’s first work, originally issued anonymously in 1756 as a letter attributed to “a late noble writer.” In 1757 Burke produced a revised version with a new preface but still did not attach his name to the work.

This Liberty Fund edition is based on the 1757 revision. The Vindication is a political and social satire ridiculing the popular enlightenment notion of a pre-civil “natural society.”

Frank N. Pagano is a Tutor at St. John’s College at Santa Fe