 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Roger Scruton |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Conservatism |
| Published | 2014 |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Continuum |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 978-1-4729-0376-1 |
How to Be a Conservative is a 2014 book by the English philosopher Roger Scruton, in which the author outlines the conservative ideology, its opposition to economic materialism, and argues how it can be applied to crucial contemporary issues.
Jesse Norman wrote in The Spectator : "There are occasional missteps and the odd mini-rant, but the book is highly engaging, and studded with insights into topics as diverse as international treaties, alienation and the nature of laughter." [1] In Standpoint , David Willetts wrote that the book "communicates a distinctive conservative disposition with great charm and formidable learning." [2] Willetts wrote that Scruton:
is very good on the importance of autonomous institutions — what I called civic conservatism. But he is surprisingly uninterested in where this great tradition comes from or how it has changed over time. He appears to regard it as a happy and perhaps rather accidental gift from history. This means that his account of the role of Conservatives is rather passive and incurious. [2]
A Swedish translation was published in 2016. The book has also been translated into Czech by Jana Ogrocká and into Latvian by Krišjānis Lācis. The Czech translation was published in 2021.
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of social institutions such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, property rights, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favour institutions and practices that guarantee social order and that evolved gradually. Adherents of conservatism often oppose certain aspects of modernity and seek a return to traditional values, though different groups of conservatives may choose different traditional values to preserve.
David Linsay Willetts, Baron Willetts, is a British politician and life peer. From 1992 to 2015, he was the Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Havant in Hampshire. He served as Minister of State for Universities and Science from 2010 until July 2014 and became a member of the House of Lords in 2015. He was appointed chair of the UK Space Agency's board in April 2022. He is president of the Resolution Foundation.
The American Conservative (TAC) is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has been published once every two months.
The New Criterion is a New York–based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Roger Kimball and James Panero. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books. It was founded in 1982 by Hilton Kramer, former art critic for The New York Times, and Samuel Lipman, a pianist and music critic. The name is a reference to The Criterion, a British literary magazine edited by T. S. Eliot from 1922 to 1939.
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views.
Russell Amos Kirk was an American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, and literary critic, known for his influence on 20th-century American conservatism. His 1953 book The Conservative Mind gave shape to the postwar conservative movement in the U.S. It traced the development of conservative thought in the Anglo-American tradition, giving special importance to the ideas of Edmund Burke. Kirk was considered the chief proponent of traditionalist conservatism. He was also an accomplished author of Gothic and ghost story fiction. He is often considered one of the most significant conservative men of letters of the twentieth century.
The Salisbury Review is a quarterly British "magazine of conservative thought". It was founded in 1982 by the Salisbury Group, who sought to articulate and further traditional intellectual conservative ideas.
The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with its varied programme of events and official journal.
In the United Kingdom and elsewhere, High Toryism is the old traditionalist conservatism which is in line with the Toryism originating in the 16th century. High Tories and their worldview are sometimes at odds with the modernising elements of the Conservative Party. Historically, the late eighteenth-century conservatism derived from the Whig Edmund Burke and William Pitt the Younger marks a watershed from the "higher" or legitimist Toryism that was allied to Jacobitism.
Kenneth Robert Minogue, also known as Ken Minogue, was an Australian academic and political theorist. Long residing in the United Kingdom, Minogue was a prominent part of the intellectual life of British conservatism.
Conservatism is a set of political philosophies that favour tradition.
John Casey is a British academic and a writer for The Daily Telegraph. He has been described as "mentor" to Roger Scruton and is a former lecturer in English at the University of Cambridge and a former lecturer and a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In 1975, along with Scruton, he founded the Conservative Philosophy Group. Though not a member of Peterhouse, he has been considered part of the Cambridge Right, which included scholars from Selwyn College, Gonville and Caius College and Christ's College as well. He was editor of The Cambridge Review between 1975 and 1979.
Alexander Jesse Norman is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as Minister of State for Decarbonisation and Technology since October 2022. He previously served as Minister of State for the Americas and the Overseas Territories from September to October 2022. He served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2019 to 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hereford and South Herefordshire since 2010.
Traditionalist conservatism, often known as classical conservatism, is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes the importance of transcendent moral principles, manifested through certain posited natural laws to which it is claimed society should adhere. Traditionalist conservatism, as we know it today, is primarily based on Edmund Burke's political views, although Toryism represented an even earlier, more primitive form of traditionalist conservatism. Traditionalists value social ties and the preservation of ancestral institutions above what they perceive as excessive individualism.
This a list of the published works of English philosopher Roger Scruton.
Thinkers of the New Left is a book by the conservative English philosopher Roger Scruton published by Longman in 1985, in which the author harshly criticizes the writings of authors he considers as representative of the New Left. The book proved controversial and according to Scruton its reception damaged his academic career. Some of the material in the book appeared in reworked form in a 2015 book titled Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left.
The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin is a 2011 book written by political theorist Corey Robin. It argues that conservatism from the 17th century to today is based on the principle "that some are fit, and thus ought, to rule others". Robin argues that rather than being about liberty, limited government, resistance to change, or public virtue, conservatism is a "mode of counterrevolutionary practice" to preserve hierarchy and power.
The Disappeared is a 2015 novel by the English writer Roger Scruton. It tells the story of a schoolgirl from Northern England who has become the victim of an immigrant child grooming gang. Through clues in her essay on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, one of her teachers learns about the situation and tries to find a way to help her.
Notes from Underground is a 2014 novel by the English writer Roger Scruton. It is set in Prague in the 1980s and follows a young Czech writer, Jan Reichl, who becomes involved with an underground intellectual scene. Jan ends up in the United States where he later, in the early 21st century, examines his experiences. The title references Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel with the same title. The book received the bronze prize in the "Suspense / Thriller" category at the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition is a 2017 book by English philosopher Roger Scruton, in which the author outlines the development of modern conservatism. It is intended as an introduction to conservatism, with the author stating, "I have written this book in the hope of encouraging well-meaning liberals to take a look at what [the] arguments [for conservatism] really are”.
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