American conservatives, still in a state of shock from President Obama’s victory, must now live with the man for whom they didn’t vote. We English conservatives have born a similar burden for the last 12 years, and maybe we are…

THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR’S ESSAYS on “the future of individual liberty,” which have appeared during the course of this past year, reminded us that liberty remains one of the defining issues of modern politics: it is what is at stake in…

I ATTENDED AN ordinary English state school in the late 1950s. In our history lessons we were taught that England is the heart of Great Britain, that Great Britain is the heart of an Empire, and that, thanks to this…

All conservatives agree on one thing, which is that, before destroying things, we should pause to consider their merits. This principle applies to everything important, from marriage to monarchy, and also to architecture, which is a fundamental component in both…

This article appeared in the October 2007 issue of The American Spectator, where Mr. Scruton is a monthly columnist. To subscribe to our monthly print edition, click here. THE FIRST PIECE OF MORAL advice that parents used to give their…

This article appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe to our monthly print edition, click here. A CENTURY AGO MARCEL DUCHAMP signed a urinal with the name “R. Mutt,” entitled it “La Fontaine,” and exhibited…

This article appears in the June 2007 issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe to the monthly print edition, click here. REASON SHOWS ITSELF in all our attempts to understand the world and in all our ways of relating to…

This essay is the fifth in a ten-part series being published in successive issues of The American Spectator under the general title, “The Pursuit of Liberty: Can the Ideals That Made America Great Provide a Model for the World?” (Also…

This article appeared in the December 2006/January 2007 issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe to our monthly print edition, click here. WHEN JAMES MADISON agitated to make religious freedom fundamental to the United States Constitution, it was not from…

This article appears in the July/August 2006 issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe, click here. A century ago composers and musicologists set out to collect and preserve the folk music of Europe. Janacek wrote down the songs and dances…