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Description
A devastating critique of New Left thinking.
In Fools, Frauds and Firebrands, Roger Scruton first surveys and then deconstructs the golden idols of left wing thought from the 1960s to the present day. He dissects the hollow works of Hobsbawm and E. P. Thompson, Galbraith and Dworkin, Sartre and Foucault and exposes the lack of coherence in the works of Althusser, Lacan, Deleuze, Badiou and Žižek.
Scruton ponders why the humanities have become so unambiguously aligned to the left, and reveals how fully such thinking has seized the academy in its grasp. In this provocative, compelling and highly entertaining book he explains why empty rhetoric abounds over careful analysis and blatant nonsense over respectable logic, in a shattering demolition of some of today's most fashionable philosophers.
Table of Contents
1 What is Left?
2 Resentment in Britain: Hobsbawm and Thompson
3 Disdain in America: Galbraith and Dworkin
4 Liberation in France: Sartre and Foucault
5 Tedium in Germany: Downhill to Habermas
6 Nonsense in Paris: Althusser, Lacan and Deleuze
7 Culture Wars Worldwide: The New Left from Gramsci to Said
8 The Kraken Wakes: Badiou and Žižek
9 What is Right?
Index of names
Index of subjects
Product details
| Published | 25 Jun 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Audiobook |
| Duration | 12 hours and 0 minutes |
| ISBN | 9781399435918 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Continuum |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Eminent British philosopher and polymath Scruton gives a sharp-edged, provocative critique of leading leftist thinkers since the mid-twentieth century ... complex and erudite.
Publisher's Weekly US
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Caustic, highly recherché, and simply great fun to read for the questing intellectual soul.
Kirkus Reviews
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From the standpoint of a serious conservatism, it honestly assesses the political and philosophical contributions of the Left. The book also 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
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Since he no longer has a university career to protect, Scruton can now tweak the nose of academic leftism to his heart's content… Scruton is at his best, (and funniest) when trying to make sense of [Alain] Badiou's weird confection historical materialism and Platonic mathematical theory.
Jonathan Derbyshire, Prospect
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The book is a masterpiece ... 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.
Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal
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I enjoyed this immensely, both for Scruton's dry, British wit as well as for the sheer breadth of intellectuals covered in his survey.
Against the Grain Blog

























