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    Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left
    Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left
    Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left
    Audiobook13 hours

    Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left

    Written by Roger Scruton

    Narrated by Rory Barnett

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    About this audiobook

    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. 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. P. Thompson, Ronald Dworkin, R. D. Laing, Jurgen Habermas, Gyorgy Lukacs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Žižek, 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 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. 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 20, 2018
    ISBN9781541482357
    Author

    Roger Scruton

    Roger Scruton is a philosopher whose books include Art and Imagination (1974), The Meaning of Conservatism (1980), The Philosopher on Dover Beach (1990), The Aesthetics of Music (1997), Beauty (2009), How to Think Seriously About the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism (2012) and Our Church (2012). In 2010 he delivered the Gifford Lectures at St Andrews on 'The Face of God'. He has been described, by Daniel Hannan, MEP, as 'The man who, more than any other, has defined what conservatism is.'

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    Reviews for Fools, Frauds and Firebrands

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    61 ratings4 reviews

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    • 1/5
      A dumb book of petty arguments with mostly dead philosophers. Camus would have whooped the author.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Astute combination of reasoned critique and polemic, amplified by quotations from major shrill and barely literate new left writers.
    • 4/5
      An excellent book by Roger Scruton. He sweeps the tradition of 20th century leftist intellectuals, their goals.

      As you read, the book, you will quickly realize how most of the institutions, economy and even language is labeled as bourgeois capitalist. Scruton points out, all thinkers in the left fail to explain, an alternative, make the reader to live in an abstract concept distanced from reality. He argues that, most of the thinkers fail to see the bloodshed as a result. Revolution, is their anthem.

      Here's an excerpt,

      "Over-determination designates the following essential quality of contradiction: the reflection in contradiction itself of its conditions of existence, that is, of its situation in the structure in dominance of the complex whole. The is not an univocal situation. It is not just its situation 'in principle' (nor) just its situation 'in fact'"

      Did you understand? No, you are not supposed to, because, it is immersed in extra-immense prose, while crying out 'let this not be doubted.'


      They use newspeak, do not want anyone to challenge them, in a way, their writings are filled with incoherent thoughts. Whoever disagrees is labeled bourgeois. Even to use reason is bourgeois, thus one has to abandon it. In Postmodern culture, everything is permitted, it is vital to forbid, the forbidden.


      No wonder, how Scruton managed to read them all. Kudos to him

      A great read to understand, all the New Left.

      Deus Vult
      --Gottfried
    • 3/5
      Cranky. Scruton settles scores with the New Left with a re-release of a 1980's book, rewritten with a poisoned pen, wielded elegantly. I wonder why he wasted the time trashing eccentric ideological non-entinties like Lacan and Zizek. (He dropped the section on R.D. Laing, so he has dropped his attack on the more marginal and less intellectual members of the set).