The death of Sir Roger Scruton has deprived the Anglosphere of one of its most accomplished public intellectuals. Scruton is inevitably described as a “conservative philosopher,” but he was also an accomplished musician, novelist and connoisseur of wine. Theodore Dalrymple, writing in City Journal, provides an overview of an astonishing career and a life well-lived.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


