Against the tide : the best of Roger Scruton's columns, commentaries and criticism

Scruton, Roger (author.). Dooley, Mark (editor.).

Summary: 'His moral courage shines through from the start.' - Sunday Telegraph The definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume. The philosopher Roger Scruton was the leading conservative thinker of the post-war years. In this book are assembled the very best of his essays and commentaries, arranged thematically. The selection has been made and edited by Mark Dooley, Scruton's literary executor. Throughout this collection, Scruton proves himself to be at his most scintillating and controversial. He writes with passion and conviction about such varied topics as feminism, racism, fascism, Tony Blair and Donald Trump, as well as subjects like global warming, music and architecture. He takes aim at those who defy conservative common sense in favour of liberal falsehoods. This book shows Scruton at his most brilliant and demonstrates how his influence will remain strong and enduring.

Record details

ISBN: 9781472992932 (hardcover)
Physical Description: print
256 pages ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury Continuum, 2022.
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Preface: the work that must be done -- Part one: who am I -- My life beyond the pale -- Roger Scruton says 'put a cork in it' -- My week: July 2005 -- My week: January 2006 -- My week: April 2006 -- The flame that was snuffed out by freedom -- Finding Scrutopia in the Czech Republic -- Diary: August 2016 -- Part two: who are we? -- The conservative conscience -- The Blair legacy -- A question of temperament -- The meaning of Margaret Thatcher -- Identity, marriage family: our core conservative values have been betrayed -- What Trump doesn't get about conservatism -- Part three: why the left is never right -- The ideology of human rights -- Who is a fascist? -- In praise of privilege -- A hominist homily -- In loco parentis -- McCarthy was right on the red menace -- A focus of loyalty higher than the state -- The art of taking offence -- Part four: intimations of infinity -- De anima -- A matter of life and deathlessness -- Dawkins is wrong about God -- Altruism and selfishness -- Memo to Hawking: there's still room for God -- Humans hunger for the sacred: why can't the new atheists understand that? -- Part five: the end of education -- The virtue of irrelevance -- The open university and the closed mind -- The end of education -- The plague of sociology -- Know your place -- Universities' war against the truth -- Part six: Fraudulent philosophy -- A note on Foucault -- Freud and Fraud -- If only Chomsky had stuck to syntax -- Part seven: the west and the rest -- In memory of Iran -- The lesson of Lebanon -- Decent debate musn't be the victim -- The wrong way to treat President Putin -- Why Iraq is a write-off -- Part eight: cultural corruption -- The art of motor-cycle maintenance -- Temples of anxiety -- The modern cult of ugliness -- High culture is being corrupted by a culture of fakes -- Part nine: animal rights, pulpit politics and sex -- Male domination -- The pestilence of pulpit politics -- On the eating of fish -- Obligations of the flesh -- Eat animals! It's for their own good -- Sextants and sexting -- Tally ho! Let the hunt remind us of who we are -- Part ten: annus horribilis and last words -- Diary -- After my own dark night -- My 2019 -- Index.