David Jones (1895-1974), the Anglo-Welsh, Roman Catholic, poet, artist, and essayist, believed that Western civilisation was in decline. From his formative experience as a private in the First World War to the harrowing destruction of Western and British culture that he perceived during the Second World War and in its aftermath, Jones shaped his artistic vision of modernity on the basis of a complex and dynamic concept of ancient Rome. Jones developed this vision through his poetry, paintings, inscriptions, essays, interviews and letters over a period which spanned most of his adult life. It was not founded in any form of classical education, but was fashioned from his own experiences, his extensive reading, his conversations with friends, and, most importantly, from the discourses surrounding Rome's relationship with the modern world which were prevalent in his contemporary society. This thesis offers the first sustained study of Jones's reception of Rome and brings together a wide range of published and unpublished material. It situates Jones's vision of Rome within a broad context divided into four central areas of contemporary discourse: British political rhetoric, the cyclical historical movement, the defence of cultural unity and continuity, and the Welsh nationalist movement. Exploring the deep and previously uncharted relevance of Jones's works to twentieth-century British intellectual history reveals the enduring fascination of the Roman analogy as a way to comprehend the crisis of modernity.

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Between 1830 and 1914 in Britain a dramatic modification of the reputation of Edmund Burke (1730-97) occurred. Burke, an Irishman and Whig politician, is now most commonly known as the 'founder of modern conservatism' – an intellectual tradition which is also deeply connected to the identity of the British Conservative party. Indeed, the idea of 'Burkean conservatism’ – a political philosophy which upholds ‘the authority of tradition', the organic, historic conception of society, and the necessity of order, religion, and property – has been incredibly influential both in international academic analysis and in the wider political world. This is an intellectual construct of high significance, but its origins have not hitherto been understood: insofar as it has been considered at all, it has been typically seen as the work of Cold War American conservatives. In contrast, this thesis demonstrates that the transformation of Burke into the 'founder of conservatism' was in fact part of wider developments in British political, intellectual, and cultural history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing from a wide range of sources, including political texts, parliamentary speeches, histories, biographies, and educational curricula, this thesis provides a properly contextual history of political thought. It shows how and why Burke's reputation was transformed over a formative period of British history. In doing so, it bridges the significant gap between the history of political thought as conventionally understood and the history of the making of political traditions. The result is to show that, by 1914, Burke had been firmly established as a 'conservative' political philosopher and was admired and utilised by political Conservatives in Britain who identified themselves as his intellectual heirs. This was one essential component of a conscious re-working of 'C/conservatism', especially from the mid-1880s, which is still at work today.