Volume 33, Number 4 · March 13, 1986
The Moral Minority
By Hugh Trevor-Roper
Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England Vol.II: Assaults
by Maurice Cowling
Cambridge University Press, 375 pp., $49.50
Maurice Cowling, a fellow of Peterhouse, is well known in Cambridge, England, as a modern historian and an advocate of what he calls 'intellectual Toryism'—which is very different from the Toryism of practical politics. He has, by now, followers who somewhat pretentiously describe themselves as 'the Peterhouse school of history.' Some of these are able, though few of them are very clear writers; they have recently given each other a good deal of publicity; and a newly published book by one of them assures us that they have founded a new tradition in political philosophy.[*] In the foreword to his own new book, Mr. Cowling, while acknowledging the help of a loyal army of Peterhouse men, darkly suggests that I am not entirely sympathetic to his philosophy. This, I fear, is true. Nevertheless, I shall try to set it out fairly before responding to his challenge and commenting upon it.
Review, 3872 words
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