If you want to know what conservative core principles are there is no better place to begin than this hugely enjoyable and fascinating compilation of the work from our latter-day Edmund Burke. He has shaped my thought and guided my study of conservative political principles for some time now and it is high time a younger genertion rediscovered the works of this magnificent man. His erudition is a perfect match for his charmingly old-fashioned writing style. You might want to follow up a reading of this work with either "The Roots of Order" or "Eliot and His Age."