Whatever Happened to Tradition?: History, Belonging and the Future of the West

Description

The problem with conservatism, said Evelyn Waugh, is that it never turns the clock back. It attempts to preserve the status quo, which would be fine if the status quo was fine and it worked. But a lot of people are unhappy with it - they are depressed, dissatisfied, isolated and they are angry. In Stanley's view, civilisations go wrong, they change too fast, too far and throw out the good with the bad. This is a book about what we have lost in the West and how we can rediscover it. The argument for this book works on two levels: utility and beauty. Stanley shows that tradition - ritual, hierarchy, codes of behaviour, the concept of sanctity - all these were preserved by past societies because they were useful. Traditions are also beautiful because they enhance life and make it worth living. They add colour, identity, they tie us into history and they evoke sacred mysteries of things that exist beyond ourselves. In short the West must learn from that preservation of the past. Stanley argues for the revival of things that our culture deems reactionary and bad but which the author argues are potentially moral and good. This would include chivalry, gender roles, authority, identity aesthetics and form, rural life and the life of the spirit. In many European countries church attendance is up. People are reviving old codes of chivalry and sexual ethics disguised as feminism. We are gradually rejecting plastic and eating ethically, which means buying direct from local farmers. We are researching family histories ('Who Do You Think You Are?') and getting to know ourselves through the past. The discussion of these movements and why tradition should be seen as inherently valuable are the subject of this fascinating book.

Dr Timothy Stanley is a writer, journalist, lecturer and broadcaster. Born in 1982, he earned a first in history at Trinity College, Cambridge and then entered academic life. He held lectureships at Sussex University and Royal Holloway. He then joined the Telegraph as a columnist and leader writer. He is a contributor to CNN, and writes for History Today, the Spectator and the Guardian. He has published six books.

This is a rich and reflective book, based on wide reading and personal experience. * Literary Review * Whatever Happened to Tradition? is stuffed with marvellous vignettes... the reader is left feeling grateful for the abundance of knowledge and the ebullient conviction with which it is shared. * Allison Pearson, Telegraph * The writer he most resembles is Roger Scruton... Since Scruton died last year, there is a vacancy for a political philosopher who will defend the traditions of this nation with all his heart and all his considerable brain. I suspect we may have found his successor. * Allison Pearson, Telegraph * This book is brilliant. It's really radical in a way that all the other stuff that says it's radical is not. It really gives you an idea that there is something else outside this airless bubble of the self we are stuck in today. I find that kind of inspiring. * Adam Curtis, filmmaker * He persuasively presents tradition as rooting us in the world and in society, and as subtly adaptable. * Jane O'Grady, the Daily Telegraph * Roger Scruton's death deprived public discourse of its most intelligent and cogent defender of tradition, but Tim Stanley's Whatever Happened to Tradition? steps bravely into the breach. * Church Times * Tim Stanley suggests in his engaging way that fidelity to the past determines future happiness - for our civilisation, not just our souls. * Christopher Howse, The Spectator * The book is warmly recommended...it is full of fascinating fact and anecdotes...it is such a refreshing challenge to the sad and lazy assumptions of our age. * faith.org.uk *