Although he held only minor offices in Parliament, politician and political writer Edmund Burke strongly affected contemporary opinion, and his ideas had a profound impact on the future. He supported the American colonists in their quarrel with Britain, played a conspicuous part in the impeachment of Warren Hastings for alleged misgovernment in India, and advocated religious toleration, the abolition of the slave trade, and other reforms. A bibliography of his life and career, the book includes a biographical essay and chronology, and provides a complete list of Burke's writings, as well as books and articles about him up to the present. Important contemporary portraits and cartoons and comments of his contemporaries add to this volume.

The book's opening essay describes the life of Edmund Burke, showing how his writings and actions related to the main issues of the time, where the chronology lists events important to this situation. Section one, Manuscript and Archival Resources, sites the location of relevant collections, indicates those of greatest importance, and lists both guides to collections and contemporary periodicals. Bibliographies, biographies, and studies of Burke's political thought appear in the second section, while the tertiary section covers Burke's own writings. Contemporaries of Burke are covered in section four. His political background is examined in the fifth section, and the following chapters cover places associated with Burke, his speeches, contemporary portraits and caricatures, periodicals, and his life and career. Author, artist, and subject indexes conclude the work.