About Sir Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Scruton (1944–2020) was one of the world’s leading conservative thinkers. In his nearly fifty books, he explored the philosophical depths of human nature, politics, and culture. His many works include How to Be a Conservative; The West and the Rest; Beauty; Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands; and Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition. Reviewing the last book in the Wall Street Journal, historian Richard Aldous called it “one of the most eloquent and even moving evocations of the conservative tradition in Western politics, philosophy and culture I have ever read.”
Scruton founded the Salisbury Review and later served as a visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a fellow of the British Academy. In 2016 Queen Elizabeth II knighted Scruton for his services to “philosophy, teaching, and public education.”
In addition to all his contributions as an intellectual, Scruton dedicated himself to the practical cause of freedom. Most notably, he actively supported dissidents behind the Iron Curtain and helped establish underground education networks there. For many around the globe who have risked their lives to challenge totalist ideologies and regimes, Scruton is both philosopher and hero.