Bolingbroke and his circle : the politics of nostalgia in the age of Walpole

"Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (16 September 1678? 12 December 1751) was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France he became foreign minister for the Pretender. He was attainted for treason, but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. He is best known as the philosopher of the Country Party. In Britain, "Bolingbroke" is pronounced Bullingbrook or Bullenbrook."--Wikipedia. "Behind this study lie two questions. Why is Bolingbroke, known primarily as a rationalist philosopher of the Enlightenment, so worshipped by English conservatives who are themselves, since Burke, so set against what the Enlightenment represents in political, social, and religious thought? The second question relates to Bolingbroke's public life. How does one explain the intense animosity between Bolingbroke and Walpole which provides the energy for English political life between 1725 and 1740? Is it mere vindictiveness, ambition, jealousy, or the inevitable reflex of the 'outsider' against the 'insider'? Or is it, as the late Victorian writers thought, their falling out at Eton which forever fated them to be protagonists?"from the Preface. 'Examining the acrimonious political debate during the administration of Walpole from the perspective of its social context, Kramnick focuses directly upon the political culture of Augustan Britain. As the title implies, the volume is chiefly concerned with analyzing the thought and behavior of Bolingbroke and his supporters. The result is the most comprehensive and persuasive general study thus far published of early eighteenth-century British political thought An exploration on Bolingbroke's influence on the politics and literature of the Augustan Age. "Who now reads Bolingbroke, who ever read him through?"