Conservatism

Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton, 155 pages

For Roger Scruton, conservatism is the philosophy of balance - balance between equality and freedom, society and the individual, faith and reason.  This conservatism begins with the virtue of humility, which opens the thinker to the best that has ever been thought.  Conservatism is his introduction to the most seminal writers of the modern anti-ideological tradition, a set of guideposts pointing the way to true community and true freedom.

Scruton's survey of two centuries of conservative thought is surprisingly easy-to-read, although his narrative becomes increasingly frayed as he approaches the present, reflecting contemporary tensions within conservatism.  Unfortunately, Scruton's brief descriptive overview cannot match the depth and wisdom of Russell Kirk's prescriptive The Conservative Mind, a work which he, oddly, goes out of his way to slight.