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{{short description|Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat (1753–1821)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region           = [[Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[18th-century philosophy]]
|image            = Cogordan - Joseph de Maistre, 1894 (page 12 crop).jpg
|caption          = de Maistre by [[Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein|von Vogelstein]]
|name             = Joseph de Maistre
|birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1753|04|01}}
|birth_place      = [[Chambéry]], [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]
|death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1821|02|26|1753|04|01}}
|death_place      = [[Turin]], [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]
|school_tradition = {{unbulleted list|[[Conservatism]]|[[Traditionalism (Catholicism)|Traditionalism]]|[[Ultramontanism]]|[[Clericalism]]|[[Monarchism]]|[[Royalism]]|[[Medievalism]]|[[Mysticism]]|[[Counter-Enlightenment]]|[[Romanticism]]}}
|main_interests   = {{unbulleted list|[[Political philosophy]]|[[Political theology]]|[[Political Catholicism]]}}
|notable_ideas    = {{unbulleted list|[[Divine Providence|Providentialism]]|Necessity of [[sacrifice]]|Legitimacy of [[authority]]|Legitimacy of [[tradition]]}}
|signature        = 
|notable_works    = {{unbulleted list|''[[Considerations on France]]''<br>''[[On the Pope]]''<br>''[[St Petersburg Dialogues]]''}}
}}
'''Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre'''{{efn|''Maistre'' is traditionally pronounced {{IPA|fr|mɛstʁ|}} (i.e. sounding the "s" and rhyming with ''[[wikt:bourgmestre|bourgmestre]]''); that is how it is usually heard at university and in historical movies (as in [[Sacha Guitry]]'s 1948 film ''[[Le Diable boiteux (film)|Le Diable boiteux]]''. The pronunciation {{IPA|fr|mɛːtʁ|}} (rhymes with ''[[wikt:maître|maître]]'') is sometimes heard under the influence of the modernized pronunciation, adopted by some descendants (such as Patrice de Maistre)}} (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821)<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title= Joseph de Maistre |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-de-Maistre}}</ref> was a [[Duchy of Savoy|Savoyard]] lawyer, diplomat, and [[Political philosophy|political philosopher]].  He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern [[conservatism]], noted for his advocacy of [[social hierarchy]] and [[monarchy]] in the period immediately following the [[French Revolution]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Beum|first=Robert|year=1997|title=Ultra-Royalism Revisited|journal=Modern Age|volume=39|issue=3|page=305}}</ref> French by [[French language|language]] and [[Culture of France|culture]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Glaudes |first=Pierre |date=2007 |chapter=Avant-propos |title=Œuvres de Joseph de Maistre |language=fr|location=Paris |publisher=Robert Laffont |pages=1–6 |isbn=978-2-221-09543-0}}</ref> Maistre was nonetheless a subject of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia|King of Piedmont–Sardinia]], whom he served in various government positions, including stints in the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), as ambassador to the [[Russian Empire]] (1803–1817),<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/dublinreview33londuoft#page/418/mode/2up|title=Joseph de Maistre|magazine=The Dublin Review|volume=XXXIII|year=1852}}</ref> and as minister of state to the court in [[Turin]] (1817–1821).{{efn|The issue of Maistre's national identity has long been contentious.  Sources such as the [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358824/Joseph-de-Maistre ''Encyclopædia Britannica''] and the [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09554a.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia''] identify Maistre as French by culture, if not by law.  In 1802, after the invasion of Savoy and [[Piedmont]] by the armies of the [[French First Republic]], Maistre had fled to [[Cagliari]], the ancient capital of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]].  The French authorities listed him as an ''[[French emigration (1789–1815)|émigré]]'', subject to the confiscation of his properties and to punishment should he attempt to return to Savoy.  According to his son Rodolphe, on that occasion Maistre wrote to the French ambassador to [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] arguing that

{{blockquote|"He had not been born French, and did not desire to become French, and that, never having set foot in the lands conquered by France, he could not have become French."| ''Œuvres complètes de Joseph de Maistre'', Lyon, 1884, vol. I, p. XVIII.}}

In 1860, Albert Blanc, professor of law at the [[University of Turin]], in his preface to a collection of Maistre's diplomatic correspondence wrote that

{{blockquote|"this philosopher [Maistre] was a politician; this Catholic was an Italian; he foretold the destiny of the [[House of Savoy]], he supported the end of the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia|Austrian rule]] [of northern Italy], he has been, during this century, one of the first defenders of [Italian] independence."|''Correspondance diplomatique de Joseph de Maistre'', Paris, 1860, vol. I, pp. III-IV.}}
}}

A key figure of the [[Counter-Enlightenment]] and a precursor of [[Romanticism]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Masseau|first=Didier|year=2000|title=Les Ennemis des Philosophes|publisher=Editions Albin Michel}}</ref> Maistre regarded monarchy both as [[Divine right of kings|a divinely sanctioned institution]] and as the only stable [[form of government]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Alibert|first=Jacques|year=1992|title=Joseph de Maistre, Etat et Religion|location=Paris}}</ref>  Maistre argued that the [[rationalist]] rejection of [[Christianity]] was directly responsible for the [[Reign of Terror]] and the chaos that followed the Revolution of 1789 in France.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lebrun|first=Richard|year=1989|title=The Satanic Revolution: Joseph de Maistre's Religious Judgment of the French Revolution|journal=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History|volume=16|pages=234–240}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Garrard|first=Graeme|year=1996|title=Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and its Discontents|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume=57|issue=3|pages=429–446}}</ref> He therefore called for the restoration of the [[House of Bourbon]] to the throne of France and for the ultimate authority of the [[Pope]] in both spiritual and temporal matters. 

== Biography ==
Maistre was born in 1753 at [[Chambéry]], [[Duchy of Savoy]], at that time part of the [[Kingdom of Sardinia|Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia]] which was ruled by the [[House of Savoy]] from their capital in [[Turin]].<ref name=berlin>{{cite speech|url= http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/maistre.pdf |title= The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism |work=Two Enemies of the Enlightenment |publisher=[[Wolfson College, Oxford]] |date= 25-28 October 1965|access-date= 11 December 2008 |last= Berlin |first=Isaiah}}</ref> His family was of French and Italian origin.<ref name="geneanet">{{Cite web |url=http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=joseph&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |title=Etude Culturelle - Recherches Historiques |access-date=11 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112014623/http://gw.geneanet.org/stefanofrancobora?lang=en&pz=claudio&nz=franco+bora&ocz=0&p=joseph&n=maystre+de+maistre+aspremont |archive-date=12 November 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His grandfather André (Andrea) Maistre (1661–1722), whose parents François Maistre (1630–1674) and Margarita Maistre (née Dalmassi) (died 1717) originated in the [[County of Nice]],<ref name="geneanet"/> had been a draper and councilman in [[Nice]] (then under the rule of the House of Savoy) and his father François-Xavier Maistre (1705–1789), who moved to Chambéry in 1740, became a magistrate and senator, eventually receiving the title of [[count]] from the King of Piedmont-Sardinia. His mother's family, whose surname was Desmotz, were from [[Rumilly, Haute-Savoie|Rumilly]].<ref name="triomphe">{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Triomphe |title=Joseph de Maistre |url=https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistree0000trio |url-access=limited | location=Genève | publisher=Droz | year=1968 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistree0000trio/page/39 39]–41}} Preview available [https://books.google.com/books?id=CkrcFHJB5cQC&pg here]</ref> He was the eldest of ten surviving children and godfather to his younger brother, [[Xavier de Maistre|Xavier]], who would become a major general and a popular writer of fiction.<ref name=cath>{{cite CE1913|wstitle= Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre}}</ref><ref name=xav>{{Cite CE1913| wstitle = Xavier de Maistre}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of Joseph de Maistre.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Stipple engraving of Maistre from a painting by [[Pierre Bouillon]] in which he is shown wearing the insignia of the [[Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus]]]]
Maistre was probably educated by the [[Jesuits]].<ref name=cath/> After the Revolution, he became an ardent defender of the Jesuits, increasingly associating the spirit of the Revolution with the Jesuits' traditional enemies, the [[Jansenists]]. After completing his training in the law at the [[University of Turin]] in 1774, he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a senator in 1787. 

In his early years Maistre was a liberal and supporter of [[Gallicanism]]. The philosopher and mystic [[Louis Claude de Saint-Martin]] was a major and lasting influence for Maistre. In one of his first public addresses Maistre praised the [[American Revolution]] proclaiming{{cquote|Liberty, insulted in Europe, has winged its flight to another hemisphere.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C.|date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=72|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> }}

A member of the progressive [[Scottish Rite]] [[Masonic]] lodge at Chambéry from 1774 to 1790,<ref>{{cite book|last=Vulliaud|first=Paul|year=1926|title=Joseph de Maistre Franc-maçon|location=Paris|publisher=Nourry}}</ref> Maistre originally favoured political reform in France, supporting the efforts of the magistrates in the [[Parlement]]s to force King [[Louis XVI]] to convene the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]]. As a [[landowner]] in France, Maistre was eligible to join that body and there is some evidence that he contemplated that possibility.<ref name="lebrun">{{cite web |first=Richard |last=Lebrun |url=http://www.maistre.polthought.cam.ac.uk/maistrebio.html |title=A Brief Biography of Joseph de Maistre |publisher=[[University of Manitoba]] |access-date=1 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325225956/http://www.maistre.polthought.cam.ac.uk/maistrebio.html |archive-date=25 March 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Maistre was alarmed by the decision of the Estates-General to combine [[Aristocracy (government)|aristocracy]], [[clergy]] and [[commoner]]s into a single legislative body which became the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]]. After the passing of the [[August Decrees]] on 4 August 1789, he decisively turned against the course of political events in France.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Greifer|first=Elisha|year=1961|title=Joseph de Maistre and the Reaction Against the Eighteenth Century|journal=The American Political Science Review|volume=55|issue=3|pages=591–598}}</ref>

[[File:Joseph de Maistre by Vallotton.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Maistre by Swiss painter [[Félix Vallotton]] from ''La Revue blanche'', 1895]]

Maistre fled Chambéry when it was taken by a French revolutionary army in 1792, but he was unable to find a position in the royal court in Turin and returned the following year. Deciding that he could not support the French-controlled regime, Maistre departed again, this time for [[Lausanne]], Switzerland,<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bordeaux|first=Henri|year=1895|title=Joseph de Maistre à Genève et à Lausanne|magazine=Semaine Littéraire|volume=II|pages=478–480}}</ref> where he discussed politics and theology at the salon of [[Anne Louise Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]], and began his career as a counter-revolutionary writer,<ref>{{cite document|last=Ferret|first=Olivier|year=2007|title=La Fureur de Nuire: Échanges Pamphlétaires entre Philosophes et Antiphilosophes, 1750-1770|location=Oxford|publisher=Voltaire Foundation}}</ref> with works such as ''Lettres d'un Royaliste Savoisien'' ("Letters from a Savoyard Royalist", 1793), ''Discours à Mme. la Marquise Costa de Beauregard, sur la Vie et la Mort de son Fils'' ("Discourse to the Marchioness Costa de Beauregard, on the Life and Death of her Son", 1794) and ''Cinq paradoxes à la Marquise de Nav...'' ("Five Paradoxes for the Marchioness of Nav...", 1795).<ref name=berlin/>

From Lausanne, Maistre went to [[Venice]] and then to [[Cagliari]], where the King of Piedmont-Sardinia held the court and the government of the kingdom after French armies took Turin in 1798. Maistre's relations with the court at Cagliari were not always easy.<ref name=berlin/> In 1802, he was sent to [[Saint Petersburg]] in Russia as ambassador to [[Tsar]] [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Teeling|first=T.T.|year=1985|url=https://archive.org/stream/americancatholic20philuoft#page/806/mode/2up|title=Joseph de Maistre|magazine=The American Catholic Quarterly Review|volume=XX|page=824}}</ref> His diplomatic responsibilities were few and he became a well-loved fixture in aristocratic and wealthy merchant circles, converting some of his friends to Roman Catholicism and writing his most influential works on political philosophy.

Maistre's observations on Russian life, contained in his diplomatic memoirs and in his personal correspondence, were among [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s sources for his novel ''[[War and Peace]]''.<ref name=berlin/> After the defeat of [[Napoleon]] and the restoration of the House of Savoy's dominion over [[Piedmont]] and Savoy under the terms of the [[Congress of Vienna]], Maistre returned in 1817 to Turin and served there as [[magistrate]] and minister of state until his death. He died on 26 February 1821 and is buried in the Jesuit Church of the Holy Martyrs (''Chiesa dei Santi Martiri'').

== Philosophy ==
=== Politics ===
{{Conservatism in France|Intellectuals}}
In {{lang|fr|[[Considerations on France|Considérations sur la France]]}} ("Considerations on France", 1796), Maistre claimed that France has a divine mission as the principal instrument of good and evil on Earth. He interpreted the Revolution of 1789 as a [[Divine providence|providential]] event in which the [[monarchy]], the [[Aristocracy (government)|aristocracy]] and the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'' in general, instead of directing the influence of French civilization to the benefit of mankind, had promoted the [[atheistic]] doctrines of the 18th-century philosophers. He claimed that the crimes of the [[Reign of Terror]] were the [[logical consequence]] of [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thought as well as its divinely-decreed punishment.<ref name= HCaR>{{cite journal |last=Lebrun |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Lebrun |date=1967 |title=Joseph de Maistre, how Catholic a Reaction? |url=http://umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1967/Lebrun.pdf |journal=CCHA Study Sessions |volume=34 |issue= |pages=29–45 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070107035631/http://umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1967/Lebrun.pdf |archive-date=2007-01-07}}</ref>

In his short book ''Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques et des Autres Institutions Humaines'' ("Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions", 1809), Maistre argued that [[constitution]]s are not the product of [[human reason]], but rather come from [[God]], who slowly brings them to maturity.

What was novel in Maistre's writings was not his enthusiastic defense of monarchical and religious authority ''per se'', but rather his arguments concerning the practical need for ultimate authority to lie with an individual capable of decisive action as well as his analysis of the social foundations of that authority's legitimacy. In his own words which he addressed to a group of aristocratic French émigrés, "You ought to know how to be royalists. Before, this was an instinct, but today it is a science. You must love the sovereign as you love order, with all the forces of intelligence."<ref name="Sénart">Quoted by Philippe Sénart in [https://books.google.com/books?id=kiDaH4ll41oC&pg=PA646 "Maistre et Tocqueville"], ''Joseph de Maistre. Les Dossiers H'', (Lausanne: Editions L'Age d'Homme, 2005), p. 646.  {{ISBN|2825118710}}</ref> Maistre's analysis of the problem of authority and its legitimacy foreshadows some of the concerns of early sociologists such as [[Auguste Comte]]<ref>Barth, Hans (1956). "Auguste Comte et Joseph de Maistre". In: ''Etudes Suisses de l'Histoire Générale'', XIV, pp. 103–138.</ref> and [[Henri de Saint-Simon]].<ref name="Levy-Bruhl">[[Lucien Lévy-Bruhl]] (1903). [https://archive.org/stream/philosophyaugus00harrgoog#page/n7/mode/2up ''The Philosophy of Auguste Comte'']. New York: Putnam and Sons, pp. 297-8.</ref><ref name="Pickering">Pickering, Mary (1993). ''Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography'', vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 261–8 {{ISBN|052143405X}}</ref>

Despite his preference for monarchy, Maistre acknowledged that republics could be the superior form of government, depending on the situation and the people. Maistre also defended the government of the [[United States]] because its people were heirs to the democratic spirit of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], which he felt France lacked.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C |date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=75, 78-79|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Religion ===
After the appearance in 1816 of his French translation of [[Plutarch]]'s treatise ''On the Delay of Divine Justice in the Punishment of the Guilty'', Maistre published ''Du Pape'' ("[[On the Pope]]") in 1819, the most complete exposition of his religious conception of authority. According to Maistre, any attempt to justify government on rational grounds will only lead to unresolvable arguments about the legitimacy and expediency of any existing government and that this in turn will lead to violence and chaos.<ref>Murray, John C. (1949). "The Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre," ''The Review of Politics'', Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 63–86.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bradley|first=Owen|year=1999|title=A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]}}</ref> As a result, Maistre argued that the legitimacy of government must be based on compelling, but non-rational grounds which its subjects must not be allowed to question.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lebrun|first=Richard A.|year=1969|title=Joseph de Maistre, Cassandra of Science|journal=French Historical Studies|volume=6|issue=2|pages=214–231}}</ref> Maistre went on to argue that [[authority]] in politics should derive from religion and that in Europe this religious authority must ultimately lie with the [[Pope]].

=== Ethics ===
{{Theodicy}}
In addition to his voluminous correspondence, Maistre left two books that were published posthumously. ''[[St Petersburg Dialogues|Soirées de St. Pétersbourg]]'' (1821) is a [[theodicy]] in the form of a [[Plato#Plato's dialogues|Platonic dialogue]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kochin|first=Michael S.|year=2002|url=http://www.tau.ac.il/~kochin/maislawsfinal.pdf|title=How Joseph De Maistre Read Plato's Laws|journal=Polis|volume=19|issue=1–2|pages=29–43}}</ref> in which Maistre argues that evil exists because of its place in the divine plan, according to which the blood sacrifice of innocents returns men to God via the expiation of the sins of the guilty. Maistre sees this as a law of human history as unquestionable as it is mysterious.

=== Science ===
''[[An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon|Examen de la Philosophie de Bacon]]'' ("An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon", 1836) is a critique of the thought of [[Francis Bacon]],<ref>Huet, François (1837). "Le Chancelier Bacon et le Comte Joseph de Maistre." In: [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015073711635 ''Nouvelles Archives Historiques, Philosophiques et Littéraires.''] Gand: C. Annoot-Braekman, vol. I, pp. 65–94.</ref> whom Maistre considers to be the fountainhead of the destructive rationalistic thought.<ref>Gourmont, Rémy de (1905). "François Bacon et Joseph de Maistre." In: ''Promenades Philosophiques.'' Paris: Mercure de France, pp. 7–32.</ref> Maistre also argued, [[Romanticism|romantically]], that [[genius]] plays a pivotal role in great scientific discoveries, as demonstrated by inspired intellects such as [[Johannes Kepler]], [[Galileo Galilei]] and [[Isaac Newton]], contrary to Bacon's theory about conforming to a mechanistic method.<ref name="Liberalism and Tradition worldcat.org">{{cite book|title=Liberalism and Tradition|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2010|isbn=978-0-521-14305-9|oclc=502414345|first=Bernard|last=Reardon|page=35}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Maistre was married to Françoise de Morand de Saint-Sulpice (1759–1839),<ref>EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTER OF MARRIAGE ACTS OF St-LEGER IN CHAMBERY FOR THE YEAR 1786: The year 1786 and September 17.</ref> daughter of colonel of the Chablais regiment Jean-Pierre de Morand (1703–1759) and his wife Anne Marie Favier du Noyer (1732–1812), with whom he had three children: daughters Adèle (1787–1862), who married administrator {{ill|Hippolyte Terray de Rozières|fr}} (1774–1849) and Constance (1793–1882), who married soldier [[Eugène-Alexandre de Montmorency-Laval]], fourth duc de Laval (1773–1851), and son [[Rodolphe de Maistre|Rudolphe]] (1789–1866), military officer who fought for the [[Russian Empire]] at the [[Battle of Friedland|battles of Friedland]], [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|Smolensk]], [[Battle of Borodino|Moskova (Borodino)]], [[Battle of Bérézina|Bérézina]], [[Battle of Dresde|Dresde]], and [[Battle of Leipzig|Leipzig]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Enfant du Siècle : Joseph de Maistre as a Writer|date=2010|isbn=978-1-907548-00-0|oclc=845004043|first=Carolina|last=Armenteros|pages=129–130|publisher=Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews }}</ref>

== Legacy and reputation ==
[[File:Statue des frères de Maistre.jpg|thumb|Statue of the Joseph and Xavier de Maistre brothers outside the old fortress in their hometown Chambéry]]
[[File:Plaque Rue Joseph Maistre - Paris XVIII (FR75) - 2021-08-04 - 1.jpg|thumb|Street named after Joseph de Maistre in [[Montmartre]], Paris]]
[[File:Torino Santi Martiri Joseph de Maistre 23072015.jpg|thumb|Joseph de Maistre's tomb at the Church of the Holy Martyrs in Turin]]
=== Politics ===
Together with the [[Anglo-Irish]] statesman and philosopher [[Edmund Burke]], Maistre is commonly regarded as one of the founders of European [[conservatism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Conservatism : The Fight for a Tradition|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780691207773|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=2020|isbn=978-0-691-20777-3|first=Edmund|last=Fawcett|pages=3–18|doi=10.1515/9780691207773 }}</ref><ref>Fuchs, Michel (1984). "Edmund Burke et Joseph de Maistre", ''Revue de l'Université d'Ottawa'', Vol. 54, pp. 49–58.</ref> Maistre exerted a powerful influence on the Spanish political thinker [[Juan Donoso Cortés]],<ref>Tarrago, Rafael E. (1999). [http://www.catholicsocialscientists.org/cssr/Archival/1999/1999_167.pdf "Two Catholic Conservatives: The Ideas of Joseph de Maistre and Juan Donoso Cortes,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013164745/http://www.catholicsocialscientists.org/cssr/Archival/1999/1999_167.pdf |date=13 October 2014 }} ''Catholic Social Science Review'', Vol. 4, pp. 167–177.</ref><ref>Spektorowski, Alberto (2002). "Maistre, Donoso Cortes, and the Legacy of Catholic Authoritarianism," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 283–302.</ref> the French royalist [[Charles Maurras]] and his nationalist movement ''[[Action Française]]''<ref>Gerin-Ricard, Lazare de (1929). ''Les Idées Politiques de Joseph de Maistre et la Doctrine de Maurras.'' La Rochelle: Editions Rupella.</ref> as well as the German philosopher of law [[Carl Schmitt]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Filosoferna : den moderna världens födelse och det västerlandska tänkandet|publisher=Natur & Kultur|date=2016|isbn=978-91-27-14699-0|oclc=985104734|first=Svante|last=Nordin|page=303}}</ref>

However, according to [[Carolina Armenteros]], who has written four books about Maistre, his writings influenced not only conservative political thinkers but also the [[Utopian socialism|utopian socialists]].<ref name="Armenteros">Armenteros, Carolina (2011). ''The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794-1854''. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press {{ISBN|0-8014-4943-X}}</ref> Early sociologists such as [[Auguste Comte]] and [[Henri de Saint-Simon]] explicitly acknowledged the influence of Maistre on their own thinking about the sources of social cohesion and political authority.<ref name="Levy-Bruhl" /><ref name="Pickering" />

Maistre has been criticized by [[Classical liberalism|classical liberals]]. Literary critic [[Émile Faguet]] described Maistre as "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous trinity composed of pope, king and hangman, always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism, a dark figure out of the Middle Ages, part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner".<ref>Émile Faguet, ''Politiques et Moralistes du Dix-neuvieme Siècle'', 1st series, Paris: Société Française d'Imprimerie et de Librairie, 1899. Cited in: {{cite book | last = Maistre | first = Joseph de | title = Considerations on France | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | year = 1994 | isbn = 0-521-46628-8 |page=xi |chapter=Introduction |author2=Isaiah Berlin}}</ref> Political historian [[Isaiah Berlin]] considered Maistre a forerunner to the 20th-century movement of [[fascism]], claiming that Maistre knew the self-destructive impulses in human nature and intended to exploit them.<ref>{{cite speech |title=The Second Onslaught: Joseph de Maistre and Open Obscurantism |url=https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/maistre.pdf |page=22–23 |last=Isaiah |first=Berlin |year=1965 |location=Harkness Theater, Columbia University }}</ref> However, [[Italian fascism]] openly rejected Maistre's reactionary conservatism.<ref>{{cite book|first=Stanley G.|last=Payne|title=A History of Fascism, 1914–45|location=[[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]]|publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]]|year=1995|page=214|isbn=0299148742}}</ref>

=== Literature ===
Maistre's skills as a writer and polemicist ensured that he continues to be read. [[Matthew Arnold]], an influential 19th-century critic, wrote as follows while comparing Maistre's style with that of his Irish counterpart [[Edmund Burke]]:

<blockquote>"Joseph de Maistre is another of those men whose word, like that of Burke, has vitality. In imaginative power he is altogether inferior to Burke. On the other hand, his thought moves in closer order than Burke's, more rapidly, more directly; he has fewer superfluities. Burke is a great writer, but Joseph de Maistre's use of the French language is more powerful, more thoroughly satisfactory, than Burke's use of the English. It is masterly; it shows us to perfection of what that admirable instrument, the French language, is capable."<ref>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Matthew|year=1973|chapter=Joseph de Maistre on Russia|title=English Literature and Irish Politics|location=Ann Arbor|publisher=The University of Michigan Press|page=87}}</ref></blockquote>

The ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' of 1910 describes his writing style as "strong, lively, picturesque" and states that his "animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone".<ref name=cath/> [[George Saintsbury]] called him "unquestionably one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century".<ref>{{cite book|last=Saintsbury|first=George|year=1917|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433043675325;view=1up;seq=5|title=A Short History of French Literature|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|page=469}}</ref> Although a political opponent, [[Alphonse de Lamartine]] called him the "[[Plato]] of the Alps".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Murray |first=John C |date=1949 |title=The Political Thought of Joseph De Maistre|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404500.|journal= The Review of Politics |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=67|doi=10.1017/S0034670500044685 |jstor=1404500 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Admiring the splendour of his prose, Lamartine stated:

{{blockquote|"That brief, nervous, lucid style, stripped of phrases, robust of limb, did not at all recall the softness of the eighteenth century, nor the declamations of the latest French books: it was born and steeped in the breath of the Alps; it was virgin, it was young, it was harsh and savage; it had no human respect, it felt its solitude; it improvised depth and form all at once ... That man was new among the ''enfants du siècle'' [children of the century]."<ref>{{cite book |first=Alphonse |last=de Lamartine|title= Souvenirs et Portraits|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/souvenirsetportr01lama#page/n5/mode/2up |volume=1 |location=Paris: Hachette et Cie. |year=1874 |chapter=Les De Maistre |page=189}}</ref>}}

Maistre is also associated with the [[Counter-Enlightenment]] movement [[Romanticism]]<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Enfant du Siècle: Joseph de Maistre as a Writer|date=2010|isbn=978-1-907548-00-0|oclc=845004043|first=Carolina|last=Armenteros|page=15|publisher=Centre for French History and Culture of the University of St. Andrews }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Considerations on France|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|page=11|first=Richard A.|last=Lebrun|year=1974|chapter=Introduction|editor=de Maistre, Joseph}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Menace of the Herd; or, Procrustes at Large|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|oclc=733805752|first=Erik|last=von Kuehnelt-Leddihn|year=1943|page=124}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Introduction|title=An Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon|publisher=McGill's Queen's University Press|page=ix|first=Lebrun|last=Richard A.|year=1998|isbn=0-7735-1727-8 |editor=de Maistre, Joseph}}</ref> and is often referred to as a Romantic.<ref name="Liberalism and Tradition worldcat.org" /><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Introduction by Isiah Berlin|title=Considerations on France|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139170758.006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=xxxiii|editor-first=Richard A.|editor-last=Lebrun|year=2009|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139170758.006 |isbn=9781139170758 |last=de Maistre|first=Joseph}}</ref><ref name= HCaR /><ref>{{cite book|author-last=Day|author-first=Aidan|title=Romanticism|year=1996|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-08378-8|pages=1–3}}</ref> Among those who admired him was [[Charles Baudelaire]] – the most famous Romantic poet in France – who described himself a disciple of the Savoyard counter-revolutionary, claiming that Maistre had taught him how to think.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Alphonsus|first=Mère Mary|year=1942|title=The Influence of Joseph de Maistre on Baudelaire|chapter=De Maistre et Edgar Poe m'ont appris à Raisonner|publisher=Bryn Mawr College|type=doctoral|lang=fr}}</ref><ref>Eygun, Francois-Xavier (1990). "Influence de Joseph de Maistre sur les "Fleurs du Mal" de Baudelaire", ''Revue des Etudes Maistriennes'', Vol. 11, pp. 139–147.</ref><ref>"De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me to reason." – Baudelaire, Charles (1919). [https://archive.org/stream/baudelairehispro00baud ''Intimate Papers from the Unpublished Works of Baudelaire. Baudelaire – His Prose and Poetry.''] New York: The Modern Library, p. 245.</ref>

== Works ==
{{Catholic philosophy|Modern}}
{{Martinism}}
* [http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?db=iccu&select_db=iccu&nentries=1&from=5&searchForm=opac/iccu/error.jsp&resultForward=opac/iccu/full.jsp&do=search_show_cmd&rpnlabel=+Autore+%3D+Joseph+de+Maistre+%28parole+in+AND%29++Anno+di+pubblicazione%3E%3D1700++AND+Anno+di+pubblicazione%3C%3D1810+&rpnquery=%40attrset+bib-1+%40and+%40and++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D4+%221700%22++%40attr+1%3D1003+%40attr+4%3D2+%22Joseph+de+Maistre%22++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D2+%221810%22&totalResult=9&fname=none&brief=brief ''Nobilis Ioseph Maistre Camberiensis ad i.u. lauream anno 1772. die 29. Aprilis hora 5. pomeridiana''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722053002/http://www.sbn.it/opacsbn/opaclib?db=iccu&select_db=iccu&nentries=1&from=5&searchForm=opac/iccu/error.jsp&resultForward=opac/iccu/full.jsp&do=search_show_cmd&rpnlabel=+Autore+%3D+Joseph+de+Maistre+%28parole+in+AND%29++Anno+di+pubblicazione%3E%3D1700++AND+Anno+di+pubblicazione%3C%3D1810+&rpnquery=%40attrset+bib-1+%40and+%40and++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D4+%221700%22++%40attr+1%3D1003+%40attr+4%3D2+%22Joseph+de+Maistre%22++%40attr+1%3D31+%40attr+4%3D4++%40attr++2%3D2+%221810%22&totalResult=9&fname=none&brief=brief |date=22 July 2011 }} (Turin, 1772) – Joseph de Maistre's decree thesis, kept in the National Library of the University of Turin.
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k134091g ''Éloge de Victor-Amédée III''] (Chambéry, 1775)
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8615771v ''Lettres d'un royaliste savoisien à ses compatriotes''] (1793)
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k41850s ''Étude sur la souveraineté''] (1794)
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k418514 ''De l'État de nature, ou Examen d'un écrit de Jean-Jacques Rousseau''] (1795)
* [https://archive.org/details/considerationssu00maisuoft ''Considérations sur la France''] (London [Basel], 1796)
* ''Intorno allo stato del Piemonte rispetto alla carta moneta'' (Turn, Aosta, Venice, 1797–1799)
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k41852g ''Essai sur le Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques''], 1814, [1st. Pub. 1809]
* [https://archive.org/stream/dupape001819mais#page/n5/mode/2up ''Du Pape''], [https://archive.org/stream/dupape03maisgoog#page/n9/mode/2up Tome Second], 1819.
* [https://archive.org/stream/a591338200maisuoft#page/n3/mode/2up ''De l'Église Gallicane''], édit. [[Rodolphe de Maistre]], 1821.
* ''[[St Petersburg Dialogues|Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg ou Entretiens sur le Gouvernement Temporel de la Providence]]'', [https://archive.org/details/lessoiresdesain09maisgoog Tome Second], édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1821.
* [https://archive.org/stream/lettresaungenti00maisgoog#page/n9/mode/2up ''Lettres à un Gentilhomme Russe sur l'Inquisition Espagnole''], édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1822.
* [https://archive.org/stream/examendelaphilo01mais#page/n7/mode/2up ''Examen de la Philosophie de Bacon, ou: l'on Traite Différentes Questions de Philosophie Rationnelle''], [https://archive.org/stream/examendelaphilo02maisgoog#page/n7/mode/2up Tome Second], édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, 1836.
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k246120 ''Lettres et Opuscules Inédits du Comte Joseph de Maistre''], [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k24613b Tome Second], édit. Rodolphe de Maistre, Paris, 1853.
* [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/58/mode/2up ''Mémoires Politiques et Correspondance Diplomatique''], édit. Albert Blanc, Paris, 1859.

; English translations
* ''Memoir on the Union of Savoy and Switzerland'', 1795.
* [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951002310742q ''Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions''], 1847.
* [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433043941719 ''The Pope: Considered in His Relations with the Church, Temporal Sovereignties, Separated Churches and the Cause of Civilization''], 1850.
* [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.0114216086;seq=7;view=1up;num=i ''Letters on the Spanish Inquisition''], 1838.
* In Menczer, Béla, 1962. ''Catholic Political Thought, 1789–1848'', University of Notre Dame Press.
** [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/60/mode/2up "Human and Divine Nomenclature"], pp.&nbsp;61–66.
** [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/66/mode/2up "War, Peace, and Social Order"], pp.&nbsp;66–69.
** [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/68/mode/2up "On Sophistry and Tyranny"], pp.&nbsp;69–71.
** [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/72/mode/2up "Russia and the Christian West"], pp.&nbsp;72–76.
* Lively, Jack. ed. ''The Works of Joseph de Maistre'', Macmillan, 1965 ({{ISBN|978-0805203042}}).
*  [[Richard Lebrun]], ed. ''Works of Joseph de Maistre'':
** ''The Pope'', Howard Fertig, 1975 ({{ISBN|978-1296620059}})
** ''St. Petersburg Dialogues'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993 ({{ISBN|978-0773509825}})
** ''[[Considerations on France]]'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974 and Cambridge University Press, 1994 ({{ISBN|978-0773501829}})
** ''Against Rousseau: "On the State of Nature" and "On the Sovereignty of the People"'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996 ({{ISBN|978-0773514157}})
** ''Examination of the Philosophy of Bacon'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998 ({{ISBN| 978-0773517271}})
* Blum, Christopher Olaf (editor and translator). ''Critics of the Enlightenment'', ISI Books, 2004 ({{ISBN|978-1932236132}})
** 1798, "Reflections on Protestantism in its Relations to Sovereignty", pp.&nbsp;133–56.
** 1819, "On the Pope", pp.&nbsp;157–96.
* Lively, Jack. ed. ''The Generative Principle of Political Constitutions: Studies on Sovereignty, Religion, and Enlightenment'', Transaction Publishers, 2011 ({{ISBN|978-1412842655}})
*In Blum, Christopher O., editor and translator. ''Critics of the Enlightenment'', Cluny Media, 2020 ({{ISBN|978-1952826160}})
**1797, "[[Considerations on France]]" (excerpt of first two sections), pp.&nbsp;75–90.
**1819, "On the Pope", pp.&nbsp;91–100.

== See also ==
* [[Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald]]
* [[François-René de Chateaubriand]]
* [[Clerical philosophers]]
* [[Conservatism in France]]
* [[Ultramontanism]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2022}}
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Armenteros, Carolina (2007). "From Human Nature to Normal Humanity: Joseph de Maistre, Rousseau, and the Origins of Moral Statistics," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 68, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;107–30.
* Armenteros, Carolina (2007). "Parabolas and the Fate of Nations: Early Conservative Historicism in Joseph de Maistre's ''De la Souveraineté du Peuple''," ''History of Political Thought'', Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;230–52.
* Armenteros, Carolina ''et al.''. (2010). [http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/10023/847/1/The%20New%20Enfant%20du%20Siecle%20%28ed%20Armenteros%20and%20Lebrun%29.pdf''The New'' Enfant du Siècle: ''Joseph de Maistre as a Writer''], ''St. Andrews Studies in French History and Culture''. 
*  Armenteros, Carolina (2011). The French Idea of History: Joseph de Maistre and his Heirs, 1794–1854. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press {{ISBN|0-8014-4943-X}}
* Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). ''Joseph de Maistre and his European Readers: From Friedrich von Gentz to Isaiah Berlin''. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
* Armenteros, Carolina and Richard Lebrun (2011). ''Joseph de Maistre and the Legacy of Enlightenment''. Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation.
* Austern, Donald M. (1974). ''The Political Theories of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre as Representative of the Schools of Conservative Libertarianism and Conservative Authoritarianism.'' Amherst: Boston College Doctoral Thesis.
* [[Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly|Barbey D'Aurevilly, Jules]] (1889). "Joseph de Maistre". In: ''Les Prophètes du Passé.'' Paris: Calmann Lévy, pp.&nbsp;50–69.
* Barthelet, Philippe (2005). ''Joseph de Maistre: Les Dossiers H''. Geneva: L'Age d'Homme.
* Blamires, Cyprian P. (1985). ''Three Critiques of the French Revolution: Maistre, Bonald and Saint-Simon.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Bradley, Owen (1999). ''A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre''. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
* [[Georg Brandes|Brandes, Georg]] (1903). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.49015002169929;view=1up;seq=99 "Joseph de Maistre."] In: ''Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. 3. The Reaction in France.'' New York: The Macmillan Company, pp.&nbsp;87–112
* {{Cite book | last = Buchanan | first = Patrick | title = State of Emergency | publisher=St. Martin's Griffin | location = New York | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-312-37436-5 }}
* Camcastle, Cara (2005). ''The More Moderate Side of Joseph de Maistre.'' Ottawa: McGill-Queen's University Press.
* Caponigri, A.R. (1942). ''Some Aspects of the Philosophy of Joseph de Maistre.'' PhD Thesis, University of Chicago.
* [[Benedetto Croce|Croce, Benedetto]] (1922). "Il Duca di Serra-Capriola e Giuseppe de Maistre". In: ''Archivio Storico per le Province Napoletane'', Vol. XLVII, pp.&nbsp;313–335.
* Edwards, David W. (1977). "Count Joseph de Maistre and Russian Educational Policy, 1803-1828", ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 36, pp.&nbsp;54–75.
* Eichrodt, Joan B. (1968). ''Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality, and Joseph de Maistre.'' New York: Columbia University Master's Thesis.
* Faust, A.J. (1882). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.74886772;seq=33;view=1up;num=17 "Count Joseph de Maistre,"] ''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', Vol. VII, pp.&nbsp;17–41.
* [[Domenico Fisichella|Fisichella, Domenico]] (1963). ''Giusnaturalismo e Teoria della Sovranità in Joseph de Maistre''. Messina: Firenze (Rep. in ''Politica e Mutamento Sociale''. Lungro di Cosenza: Costantino Marco Editore, 2002, pp.&nbsp;191–243 {{ISBN|88-85350-97-6}}.)
* [[Domenico Fisichella|Fisichella, Domenico]] (1993). ''Il Pensiero Politico di Joseph de Maistre''. Roma-Bari: Laterza {{ISBN|88-420-4157-2}}.
* [[Domenico Fisichella|Fisichella, Domenico]] (2005). ''Joseph de Maistre, Pensatore Europeo''. Roma-Bari: Laterza {{ISBN|88-420-7598-1}}.
* Garrard, Graeme (1995). ''Maistre, Judge of Jean-Jacques. An Examination of the Relationship between Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph de Maistre, and the French Enlightenment.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Garrard, Graeme (1996). "Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and Its Discontents," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 57, No. 3, pp.&nbsp;429–46.
* {{cite book |last=Ghervas |first=Stella |year=2008 |title=Réinventer la Tradition: Alexandre Stourdza et l'Europe de la Sainte-Alliance |location=Paris |publisher=Honoré Champion |isbn=978-2-7453-1669-1}}
* Gianturco, Elio (1937). ''Joseph de Maistre and Giambattista Vico (Italian Roots of the Maistre's Political Culture)''. New York: Columbia University.
* Gianturco, Elio (1936). "Juridical Culture and Politico-historical Judgement in Joseph de Maistre", ''Roman Revue'', Vol. 27, pp.&nbsp;254–262.
* Glaudes, Pierre (1997). ''Joseph de Maistre et Les figures de l'Histoire: Trois Essais sur un Précurseur du Romantisme Français''. In: ''Cahiers Romantiques''. Saint Genouph: Librairie Nizet.
* [[Jacques Godechot|Godechot, Jacques]] (1982). ''The Counter-Revolution,'' Princeton University Press.
* {{cite book |last=Lebrun |first=Richard A. |title=Joseph de Maistre: An Intellectual Militant |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |year=1988 |isbn=0-7735-0645-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistrei0000lebr }}
* Lebrun, Richard A. (ed., 1988). ''Maistre Studies,'' Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
* Lebrun, Richard A. (2001). ''Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought and Influence: Selected Studies.'' Ottawa: McGill-Queen's University Press.
* {{Cite book | last = Lombard | first = Charles | title = Joseph de Maistre | publisher = Twayne | location = Boston | year = 1976 | isbn = 0-8057-6247-7 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/josephdemaistre0000lomb }}
* Legittimo, Gianfranco (1963). ''Sociologi Cattolici Italiani: De Maistre, Taparelli, Toniolo''. Roma: Il Quadrato.
* Maistre, Rodolphe de, Hexis d'un soir ou de la prénotion d'un retour de l'Esprit dans la science, La Compagnie Littéraire, 2016, 154p. [1] ({{ISBN|978-2-87683-566-5}})
* Mandoul, Jean (1900). ''Un Homme d'État Italien: Joseph de Maistre et la Politique de la Maison de Savoie''. Paris: Alcan.
* Mazlish, Bruce (1955). ''Burke, Bonald and de Maistre. A Study in Conservatism.'' New York: Columbia University Doctoral Thesis.
* [[Darrin McMahon|McMahon, Darrin M.]] (2002). ''[[Enemies of the Enlightenment|Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity]].'' Oxford University Press.
* Menczer, Béla (1962). [https://archive.org/stream/catholicpolitica00menc#page/58/mode/2up "Joseph de Maistre."] In: ''Catholic Political Thought, 1789–1848''. University of Notre Dame Press, pp.&nbsp;59–61.
* Monteton, Charles Philippe Dijon de (2007). ''Die Entzauberung des Gesellschaftsvertrags. Ein Vergleich der Anti-Sozial-Kontrakts-Theorien von Carl Ludwig von Haller und Joseph Graf de Maistre im Kontext der politischen Ideengeschichte''. Frankfurt am Main ''et al.'' {{ISBN|978-3-631-55538-5}}.
* [[John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn|Morley, John]] (1909). [https://archive.org/stream/criticalmiscella02morliala#page/256/mode/2up "Joseph de Maistre."] In: ''Critical Miscellanies''. London: Macmillan & Co., pp.&nbsp;257–338.
* Muret, Charlotte Touzalin (1933). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002441999;view=1up;seq=9 ''French Royalist Doctrines since the Revolution.''] New York: Columbia University Press.
* Pranchère, Jean-Yves (1992). ''Qu'est-ce que la Royauté? Joseph de Maistre''. Paris: Vrin.
* Pranchère, Jean-Yves (2005). ''L'Autorité contre les Lumières: la Philosophie de Joseph de Maistre''. Geneva: Droz.
* Sacré-Cœur Mercier, Lucille du (1953). ''The Historical Thought of the Comte Joseph de Maistre.'' Washington: Catholic University of America Thesis.
* Siedentop, Larry Alan (1966). ''The Limits of Enlightenment. A Study of Conservative Political Thought in Early Nineteenth-Century France with Special Reference to Maine de Biran and Joseph de Maistre.'' Oxford: Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Thorup, Mikkel (2005). [https://www.academia.edu/8283177/A_World_Without_Substance._Carl_Schmitt_and_the_Counter-Enlightenment "'A World Without Substance': Carl Schmitt and the Counter-Enlightenment,"] ''Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory'', Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;19–39.
* Thurston, Benjamin (2001). ''Joseph de Maistre. Logos and Logomachy.'' Oxford: Brasenose College-Oxford University Doctoral Thesis.
* Vermale, François (1921), ''Notes sur Joseph de Maistre Inconnu''. Chambéry: Perrin, M. Dardel Successeur.
{{refend}}
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{DBI |title= MAISTRE, Joseph de|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/joseph-de-maistre_(Dizionario-Biografico)|last= Pignatelli|first= Giuseppe|volume= 67}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Joseph de Maistre}}
* [https://www.europeana.eu/portal/search?q=who%3A%28Joseph+de+Maistre%29 Works by Joseph de Maistre] at [[Europeana]]
* [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Maistre,%20Joseph%20Marie,%20comte%20de,%201753-1821.%22&type=author&inst= Works by Joseph de Maistre] at [[Hathi Trust]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110325043936/http://www.maistre.polthought.cam.ac.uk/ The Joseph de Maistre Homepage] at the University of Cambridge
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030812162858/http://maistre.ath.cx:8000/ Works of Joseph de Maistre in English Translation]
* Britannica Com: [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358824/Joseph-de-Maistre Joseph de Maistre]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Maistre, Joseph de | volume= 17 |last1= Saintsbury |first1= George |author1-link= George Saintsbury | pages = 445&ndash;446 |short=1}}
* The Super-Enlightenment: [https://web.archive.org/web/20130612042916/http://collections.stanford.edu/supere/page.action Joseph de Maistre]

{{Joseph de Maistre}}
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