The chief difficulty in preparing a selection from the work of Edmund Burke is to decide whether to give a very few of Burke's writings in their entirety or offer excerpts from a large variety of his works.  This volume represents a compromise. It offers as many complete texts as space will allow, but they are supplemented in a few cases by important excerpts from others. Those works represented in their entirety are: Speech on American Taxation, On Conciliation with the Colonies, Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, Impeachment of Warren Hastings: Speech in General Reply, Ninth Day, Thoughts on French Affairs and the Letter to a Noble Lord.

The volume also includes major excerpts from: Tract on the Popery Laws, Letters to Gentlemen in Bristol, Speech on Economical Reform, Speech on Fox's East India Bill, Speech in Opening the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Fourth Day, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Letters on a Regicide Peace.