This famed Payne edition of Select Works of Edmund Burke is universally revered by students of English history and political thought. Volume 1, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and The Two Speeches on America , contains Burke’s brilliant defense of the American colonists’ complaints of British policy, including “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (1770), “Speech on American Taxation” (1774), and “Speech on Conciliation” (1775). Francis Canavan (1917–2009) was Professor of Political Science at Fordham University from 1966 until his retirement in 1988.