The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)

Volume 10 of Burke's collected works contains his opening speeches at the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings, the former Governor-General of Bengal. This is Burke at his most passionate and morally urgent: a devastating indictment of imperial power run amok, of a man who governed India as if justice had no purchase there. Burke doesn't merely accuse Hastings of crimes; he constructs an argument about what empire demands of those who wield it, and what happens when greed eclipses duty. The speeches are theatrical, relentless, and deeply angry. They also represent some of the finest English oratory ever committed to paper. For readers interested in the moral foundations of political power, the roots of modern critiques of imperialism, or simply the muscular beauty of 18th-century prose at its most forceful, this volume pulses with enduring relevance.