fools frauds and firebrands thinkers of the new left

Although few of us are conversant with the likes of Theodoro Adorno, Gyorgy Lukacs, and Slavoj Zizek, reading about them makes one realize how much of an imprint they have left on contemporary college campuses and even on the approach to politics taken by Barack Obama.Ī major theme of Fools is that the New Left evolved a set of intellectual tactical moves against their opponents. Most of the intellectuals profiled by Scruton are continental Europeans whose names are unfamiliar to most Americans today. The result is a devastating critique of modern left-wing thinking.Conservative British philosopher Roger Scruton’s most recent book, Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left, 2 critiques academics who did their scribbling in the twentieth century, creating what became known as the New Left. 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. 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 Zizek, Ralph Milliband and Eric Hobsbawm. He conducts a reappraisal of such major left-wing thinkers as: E. Scruton begins with a ruthless analysis of New Leftism and concludes with a critique of the key strands in its thinking. 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.

Fools frauds and firebrands thinkers of the new left