# The Uses of Pessimism

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- Book: [The Uses of Pessimism](https://www.bookquiver.com/roger-scruton/the-uses-of-pessimism) ([The Uses of Pessimism.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/roger-scruton/the-uses-of-pessimism.md))
- Authors: [Scruton](https://www.bookquiver.com/roger-scruton)
- Publisher: Atlantic Books
- ISBN: 978-18-4887-201-1
- Published: 2012-02-01
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Scruton argues that the tragedies and disasters of the history of the European continent have been the consequences of a false optimism and the fallacies that derive from it. In place of these fallacies, Scruton mounts a passionate defence of both civil society and freedom. He shows that the true legacy of European civilisation is not the false idealisms that have almost destroyed it – in the shapes of Nazism, fascism and communism – but the culture of forgiveness and irony which we must now protect from those whom it offends. The Uses of Pessimism is a passionate plea for reason and responsibility, written at a time of profound change.