Where We Are: The State of Britain Now

WINNER OF THE CATHOLIC HERALD BOOK AWARD Addressing one of the most politically turbulent periods in modern British history, philosopher Roger Scruton asks how, in these circumstances, we can come to define our identity, and what in the coming years will hold us together. To what are our duties owed and why? How do we respond to the pull of globalisation and mass migration, to the rise of Islam and to the decline of Christian belief? Do we accept these as inevitable or do we resist them? If we resist them on what basis do we build? This book sets out to answer these questions, and to understand the volatile moment in which we live. Roger Scruton slices characteristically through the fog of debate with this sensible and profound account of our collective identity; essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to be British, what that might come to mean in future, and who wonders how we can define our place in a rapidly changing world.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1 Prelude 2 Our Country: Right or Left 3 Nations, Nationalism and Us 4 Our Country: Right or Wrong 5 The Roots of British Freedom 6 The Impact of Globalisation 7 Out into the World Index A Note on the Author

About the Author :
Sir Roger Scruton is a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge. He has been Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and University Professor at Boston University. He is currently visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington DC. He has published a large number of books, including some works of fiction, and has written and composed two operas. He writes regularly for the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator and was for many years wine critic of the New Statesman.

Review :
While everyone else panics and reacts, Scruton thinks. And produces answers. Scruton, a political philosopher who was formerly professor of aesthetics at Birkbeck College, has such a harmonious writing style that one could almost imagine this essay being set to music … I found this strangely moving, and that's more than can be said for your standard work of political philosophy. A worthwhile description of how nationhood could help us regain a feeling of community, without sparking the surge in national chauvinism that EU supporters claim would result. We need a national debate about the kind of country we now hope to be; and we need it now. It is at such moments that nations turn to their philosophers ... High on any such list is Sir Roger Scruton ... At the heart of Scrutonian thought, however, lies the insight encapsulated in the title of his latest book: Where We Are. For this is above all an analysis of what we mean by a sense of place, of identity, of country.