In 1953 Russell Kirk published The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot. Quoting at length from 18th century British conservative Edmund Burke, who famously warned that if “hairdressers and candle-makers” were allowed to vote it would do “violence” to a nation, Kirk argued that modern America was on the verge of collapse because of the very middle class that FDR had created by raising taxes on the rich and legalizing unions. If the middle class got too large, at that time it was not yet half of America Kirk and followers of his work said: Working people would cease to fear their bosses.