Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, by Roger Scruton
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Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, by Roger Scruton
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The thinkers who have been most influential on the attitudes of the New Left are examined in this study by one of the leading critics of leftist orientations in modern Western civilization. Scruton begins with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concludes with a critique of the key strands in its thinking. He conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as: E. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, R. D. Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Zizek, Ralph Milliband and Eric Hobsbawm. 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.In Thinkers of the New Left Scruton asks, what does the Left look like today and as it has evolved since 1989? He charts the transfer of grievances from the working class to women, gays and immigrants, asks what can we put in the place of radical egalitarianism, and what explains the continued dominance of antinomian attitudes in the intellectual world? Can there be any foundation for resistance to the leftist agenda without religious faith?Scruton's exploration of these important issues is written with skill, perception and at all times with pellucid clarity. The result is a devastating critique of modern left-wing thinking.
Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, by Roger Scruton- Amazon Sales Rank: #74442 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-10-08
- Released on: 2015-10-08
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"The book is a masterpiece, its rather too clever title notwithstanding. In crisp, sometimes brilliant prose, Mr. Scruton considers scores of works in three languages, giving the reader an understanding of each thinker’s overarching aim and his place within the multifaceted movement known as the New Left. He neither ridicules nor abuses the writers he considers; he patiently deconstructs them, first explaining their work in terms they themselves would recognize and then laying bare their warped assumptions and empty pretensions." ―Wall Street Journal
"Scruton’s book is not the dispassionate examination and measured assessment of philosophical arguments typical of analytic philosophers. It is a polemical dissection and indictment of the perceived destructive aims and tactics of the left. Earlier chapters on Sartre and Foucault, and on members of the Frankfurt School, particularly Adorno, are the most engaging." ―Samuel Freeman, The New York Review of Books
“Eminent British philosopher and polymath Scruton gives a sharp-edged, provocative critique of leading leftist thinkers since the mid-20th century . . . complex and erudite.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Caustic, highly recherché, and simply great fun to read for the questing intellectual soul.” ―Kirkus Reviews
"[H]onestly assesses the political and philosophical contributions of the Left [and] addresses what is likely our most pressing question: ‘Can there be any foundation for resistance to the leftist agenda without religious faith?'" ―Catholic World Report
About the Author Professor Roger Scruton is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge. He has been Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and University Professor at Boston University. He is currently a visiting professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C. He has published a large number of books, including some works of fiction, and has written and composed two operas. He writes regularly for the Times, the Telegraph, and Spectator, and was for many years wine critic of the New Statesman.
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Most helpful customer reviews
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful. It can be a bit esoteric (as is often the case with explanations of abstract concepts) but this is highly recommended for those By David Eaton I'm relatively new to Srcuton's work but I have found him to one of the more insightful and well-researched essayists on matters philosophy--- especially the specious attitudes of "the new left." The chapter "Culture Wars Worldwide" is especially coruscating. His explanations of Gramsci, Said and their methods regarding how to gain control via authoritarianism (whether fascist or communist) is a fascinating study in how the current culture wars are playing out. The seeds or resentment and discontent were being sowed long ago and Scruton's exposure of this "nonsense" is badly needed. Others (Camille Paglia, Bruce Bawer, Scott Thronton, Allan Bloom, e.g.) have weighed in on this as well, but Scruton's philosophical background makes for compelling reading. It can be a bit esoteric (as is often the case with explanations of abstract concepts) but this is highly recommended for those who want to look beyond the current media commentariate for deeper understandings of why things are happening as they are. No one has all the answers (as Scruton readily admits), but there's a great deal to chew on in this book.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful. At Last! We Have an Antidote! By Ian Kluge This book is essential for those who want two things: (1) a critical overview of new left thinking and (2) specific well-explained reasons why new left thinking is logically untenable and/or a smorgasbord of inanities and platitudes - or in some cases, no more than an intellectual prank. (Lacan, Deleuze and often Foucault with his 'histories'). Scruton does an excellent job in pointing out key difficulties in their work, and in clearly explaining why - in one way or another - the nature and extent of their flaws. I especially like his blunt spoken ways i.e. no weasel words, that so often mar philosophical books by academics. What makes this book especially important is that so many of these non-sensical ideas have trickled down the street level, especially to students who adopt them with a great deal of passion but very little understanding and/or life-experience. Scruton's book is a perfect antidote against such neocortical poison because it effectively combines background knowledge with incisive analysis. If I were still teaching, I would use this book in my classroom.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful. A Serious and Important Book By Richard B. Schwartz This is an impressive and important book. Roger Scruton accepts the task of investigating the thought of a number of prominent 20thc leftist intellectuals, paying particular attention to the writings of Eric Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, Jacques Lacan, George Lukacs, Sean-Paul Sartre, Slavoj Zizek, Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault, with shorter examination of Edward Said and a short-short mention of Jacques Derrida.This is a very difficult task because many of these writers have voluminous bibliographies and write with a lugubrious, sometimes impenetrable style (the near totalizing ‘abstraction’ of which leads to a set of key points). A prominent literary critic once compared a task such as this to fighting with Joel Chandler Harris’ tar baby. If you engage with the shape-shifting beast you may never come out again. On the other hand, you cannot engage with it without reading these writers’ works, lest you be called a dilettante, a ‘vulgar conservative’, or all manner of other ugly names. Scruton is none of these, but he is very brave and tenacious to suffer through the volume of material which is here under investigation.His bottom line is that there are many common threads here, nearly all of which begin with Marx, sometimes as adumbrated by Hegel or filtered through such a shared teacher as Alexandre Kojeve. Scruton is fair in recognizing that some of these individuals’ works are impressive intellectual accomplishments, even if their conclusions are ultimately antinomian. He argues, very impressively, that many of these individuals have invented new ways of saying the same old thing. They have enlisted linguistics, epistemology, psychology, sociology, communication theory, etc. to argue, at bottom, that we will never be happy until we achieve a utopia in which the bourgeoisie is liquidated, false consciousness is transcended, the proletariat ‘rules’ as a result of its leadership by the leftist elites/intellectuals/cognoscenti. Scruton demonstrates that the proponents of these views care little for the fate of those who are tortured, imprisoned or murdered in the process and that many of them do believe in the greatness and rightness of such individuals as Stalin and Mao Zedong. They operate at a level of abstraction that sees actual human beings and their plights as incidental or unimportant. Still, they argue for an ‘end’ which is—to any sentient being—impossible to achieve.While he attempts to be as intellectually honest and transparent as possible he does not pull punches, suggesting that one explanation for their labor is Nietzsche’s observation “that resentment is the real default condition of social beings, who know only that the other has what they want, and must be made to suffer for it” (p. 287).I would have preferred a different title, since this one suggests that the book is a polemic or screed. It is not; it is a studied examination of the thought of a number of prominent leftists and the examination is undertaken with rigor and sophistication. In other words, this is a challenging book that deals with complex thought; it is not a triumphalist exposé of actual fools and frauds (though he does suggest that some—Lacan, e.g.—are very close to the latter).
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