Collection of eleven essays with the common theme of “Europe’s castrated society.” Scruton is a conservative who is difficult to categorize, as “conservatism should be a defense of government against its abuse by liberals” and a “heretic” of the prevailing thought today, which is why he was expelled from the university faculty.
He is a cultured thinker, ecological, lover of nature, art, and architecture, above all British, and with a strong sense of morality. He is highly critical of governments with too much power and no checks and balances, and an indefatigable fighter against bloated states, for whom “government is a quest for order, and power only insofar as power is necessary for order.”
He always followed his own line of thought framed by a tradition in progress that walks the path of freedom. Some of the essays are fundamental to understanding the author. Dying on Time is a very personal piece, published shortly before his death in 2020; Governing Properly is magnificent, where he defines the conservative and the progressive; and Defending the West is a manifesto about the characteristics of the West incompatible with Muslim society.