  Political participation generated scepticism about Burke as a person, some of which was unjust, though all of it was to be expected.  What was perhaps less predictable, and is certainly more interesting philosophically, is that this participation was a precondition of the practical thought which made Burke famous in his own time and has given him a leading place in the canon of Western political thought. One very important example of this is his treatment of the American Revolution. This was informed, no doubt, by where Burke happened to find himself on the spectrum of practical politics in the years that followed 1766. But his conclusions for practice were informed also by his understanding of ideas – meaning ideas in a philosophical, precisely in a Lockean sense – and how these could be combined. In other words, the content of his political thought was informed importantly not only by where he was practically but also who he was philosophically.