Reviews
Reading Scruton is to take delight in his clarity of expression and linguistic economy, and it's to feel as though you're in the hands of a guide who is unafraid of doubts and uncertainties. -Laura Keynes, Standpoint "There is a crying need for Scruton's sort of attitude that understands that everything rests on human subjectivity." -Angus Kennedy, Spiked Review of Books "Roger Scruton is that rarest of things: a first-rate philosopher who actually has a philosophy...one of the few intellectually authoritative voices in modern British conservatism." -Jesse Norman, The Spectator, "Conservatism, as Roger Scruton reminds us, was founded during the 18th-century Enlightenment...Society is best seen as a social contract, these Enlightenment thinkers said. Free individuals get together and contract with one another to create order. Conservatives said we agree with the general effort but think you've got human nature wrong. There never was such a thing as an autonomous, free individual who could gather with others to create order. Rather, individuals emerge out of families, communities, faiths, neighborhoods and nations...As Scruton put it in his bracing primer, Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition, "The question of which comes first, liberty or order, was to divide liberals from conservatives for the next 200 years." --David Brooks, New York Times, "Conservatism, as Roger Scruton reminds us, was founded during the 18th-century Enlightenment...Society is best seen as a social contract, these Enlightenment thinkers said. Free individuals get together and contract with one another to create order. Conservatives said we agree with the general effort but think you've got human nature wrong." --David Brooks, New York Times, "Conservatism, as Roger Scruton reminds us, was founded during the 18th-century Enlightenment...Society is best seen as a social contract, these Enlightenment thinkers said. Free individuals get together and contract with one another to create order. Conservatives said we agree with the general effort but think you've got human nature wrong." --David Brooks, New York Times "[Conservatism] buoyed my spirits, and helped me regain my bearings. Reading it, for me, was like feeling an unexpectedly cool, dry breeze on a stiflingly humid day." --Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine
Synopsis
"...one of the most eloquent and even moving evocations of the conservative tradition in Western politics, philosophy and culture I have ever read...the ideal primer for those who are new to conservative ideas..." --Richard Aldous, Wall Street Journal A brief magisterial introduction to the conservative tradition by one of Britain's leading intellectuals. In Conservatism , Roger Scruton offers the reader an invitation into the world of political philosophy by explaining the history and evolution of the conservative movement over the centuries. With the clarity and authority of a gifted teacher, he discusses the ideology's perspective on civil society, the rule of law, freedom, morality, property, rights, and the role of the state. In a time when many claim that conservatives lack a unified intellectual belief system, this book makes a very strong case to the contrary, one that politically-minded readers will find compelling and refreshing. Scruton analyzes the origins and development of conservatism through the philosophies and thoughts of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, among others. He shows how conservative ideas have influenced the political sector through the careers of a diverse cast of politicians, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Disraeli, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. He also takes a close look at the changing relationship between conservative politics, capitalism, and free markets in both the UK and the US. This clear, incisive guide is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Western politics and policies, now and over the last three centuries.