Man of Mercury: The Mind of Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke

Dr. Jackman examines the fascinating life of Viscount Bolingbroke, his political, literary and personal achievements, and presents a determined and powerful man who was equally fallible and vain. This masterly reconstruction recreates the man and his times, and portrays a character with whom we can all identify. The author refutes the belief that Bolingbroke was the progenitor of George III’s ‘Constitutional Experiment’ and sets his subject among the number of those ‘true conservatives’ who do not beget a school of followers. Yet Bolingbroke occupies a special position in that he attempted to define a conservative political philosophy - perhaps the only speculative politician to do this reasonably successfully. The author examines in detail the different aspects of Bolingbroke’s thought and shows that, far from trying to put back the historical clock, this leading Tory of the Augustan Age was at one with the rationalist, empirical movement of his day. Of all the great eighteenth-century personalities, Bolingbroke has been the most depreciated and neglected. There has been little attempt to give a general estimation of his ideas on philosophy, history and politics. Dr. Jackman’s book addresses this deficiency. Bolingbroke left a definite mark upon English History, and whether his career is to be admired or regretted, it cannot be ignored.