For the Ages: A History Podcast

Friends Until the End: Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the Age of Revolution

The New York Historical Season 5 Episode 3

If ever there was proof that opposites attract, it was the friendship between the personally and politically conservative Edmund Burke and the liberal-leaning libertine Charles Fox, who formed a united front in 18-century British politics for a quarter of a century. Biographer James Grant joins David M. Rubenstein to demonstrate how, despite their many differences, Fox and Burke remained friends and political allies through the American Revolution and the dramatic impeachment of East India Company governor-general Warren Hastings, but ultimately fell out, both personally and professionally, over the French Revolution.

Recorded on August 21, 2025