Roger Scruton's How to be a Conservative presents the case for modern conservatism not in the terms of an elegy but rather as a practical example of how to live as a conservative despite the pressures to live otherwise.

As he writes, the book 'is not about what we have lost, but about what we have retained, and how to hold on to it'. In this witty and frank account, Scruton draws on his years of experience as a counter-cultural presence in public life. He examines the truths in Nationalism, Socialism, Capitalism, Liberalism, Multiculturalism, Environmentalism, Internationalism and finally Conservatism.

The book concludes on a personal note, with 'a valediction forbidding mourning but admitting loss'.