Roger Scruton

Writer and philosopher Roger Scruton has long been mocked for the unfashionable conservatism that has made him unwelcome in the left-liberal academic establishment. However, at a time when the cultural consensus of the New Labour years is giving way to regret and confusion, he deserves to be taken more seriously. As an upholder of Western culture and civilisation, he is Matthew Arnold's heir.

THE MAN

Roger Scuton is currently Research Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Washington and Oxford. He is a disciple of Edmund Burke, wholly resistant to the dominant ideas of postmodernism, and comes across as a scholarly Peter Hitchens. Scruton defends a lost England of well attended church services, fox hunting and deference, and although derided as a reactionary elitist and comically haughty figure of high seriousness, is a persuasive thinker and an elegant writer. He has produced an impressive body of work on culture and aesthetics and is a welcome antidote to the governing priests of academia, those brought up on the work of Foucault, Said and Derrida. Scruton is a passionate defender of reason and taste and is opposed to what he sees as a valueless time of self-indulgence, addiction and superficiality. Given the prevailing intellectual orthodoxy, he is a necessary dissident.   

THE WEBSITE

The site itself features a blog, the last entry of which dates back to January 2009, a CV, a list of the author's prodigious output, and details of his business interests and life in the Wiltshire countryside. Of most interest however, is the archive of his journalism. Scruton writes for a variety of publications, including The Telegraph, The Spectator and The Daily Mail. You'll find all sorts here, from a piece on Noam Chomsky to an article on the importance of laughter.