fools frauds and firebrands by roger scruton

I will be looking to read more of Scruton, and to listen to more of Rory Barnett.From one of the leading critics of leftist orientations comes a study of the thinkers who have most influenced the attitudes of the New Left. His tone is lively and engaging, making a book critiquing postmodern thought into an enjoyable listen. He masterfully inflects the book's sophisticated prose so that the reader has no trouble following dense passages, such as Scruton's critiques of what he calls the Parisian School of Nonsense. Equally wonderful is this audiobook's narrator, Rory Barnett. Liberals would undoubtedly benefit from listening to this book as a way to understand a prominent conservative's serious critiques of the New Left. The reader/listener will come across many similarly astute insights into the most hallowed authors of postmodernism. Lukács, another Leftist thinker examined in this book, is every bit as intolerant as Leftists on Twitter imagine conservatives as being. Confounding figures like Calvin Coolidge, meanwhile, remain absolutely neglected by Gramsci and journalists who follow him. It is a ploy used by some of today's journalists to demonize conservative perspectives, and yet it is also a regurgitation from the playbook of a Marxist zealot who died 80+ years ago. Gramsci presumes the difference between those on the political Left and Right as favoring either communism or fascism, respectively. Conservatives will benefit from his shrewd commentary on Gramsci's false dichotomy. Roger Scruton lands many sharp-if not fatal-critiques on the modern, new Left. Can there be any foundation for resistance to the leftist agenda without religious faith? Writing with great clarity, Scruton delivers a devastating critique of modern left-wing thinking.

In Fools, Frauds and Firebrands Scruton asks, what does the Left look like today, and how has it evolved? He charts the transfer of grievances, from the working class to women, gays, and immigrants, asks what we can put in the place of radical egalitarianism, and what explains the continued dominance of antinomian attitudes in the intellectual world. In addition to assessments of these thinkers' philosophical and political contributions, the book contains a biographical and bibliographical section summarizing their careers and most important writings.

Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Žižek, Ralph Milliband, and Eric Hobsbawm. Beginning with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concluding with a critique of the key strands in its thinking, Roger Scruton conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as E. From one of the leading critics of leftist orientations comes a study of the thinkers who have most influenced the attitudes of the New Left.

Fools frauds and firebrands by roger scruton