For a conservative, Roger Scruton does rather a lot of thinking. He wishes to make the intellectual case for conservatism, and counter the prevailing assumption that as a political project it lacks philosophical depth. Scruton's most significant contribution in this regard remains his landmark volume The Meaning of Conservatism, and readers in search of the definitive statement of Scruton-ism should prefer that text over the one under review here. In spite of its title, this book is less a statement of (...) a political philosophy than a collection of essays informed by one. It provides a useful introduction to much of Scruton's recent work, containing chapters on a diverse range of topics including animal rights, the nation, postmodernism, marriage and T. S. Eliot. (shrink)