The New Puritans
On sale
4th May 2023
Price: £10.99
‘A sober but devastating skewering of cancel culture and the moral certainties it shares with religious fundamentalism’ Sunday Times
Engaging, incisive and acute, The New Puritans is a deeply necessary exploration of our current cultural climate and an urgent appeal to return to a truly liberal society.
The puritans of the seventeenth century sought to refashion society in accordance with their own beliefs, but they were deep thinkers who were aware of their own fallibility. Today, in the grasp of the new puritans, we see a very different story.
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called ‘social justice’, the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion – one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. Its disciples even have their own language, rituals and a determination to root out sinners through what has become known as ‘cancel culture’.
In The New Puritans, Andrew Doyle powerfully examines the underlying belief-systems of this ideology, and how it has risen so rapidly to dominate all major political, cultural and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand where these new puritans came from and what they hope to achieve. Written in the spirit of optimism and understanding, Doyle offers an eloquent and powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values and explains why it’s important we act now.
Engaging, incisive and acute, The New Puritans is a deeply necessary exploration of our current cultural climate and an urgent appeal to return to a truly liberal society.
The puritans of the seventeenth century sought to refashion society in accordance with their own beliefs, but they were deep thinkers who were aware of their own fallibility. Today, in the grasp of the new puritans, we see a very different story.
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called ‘social justice’, the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion – one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. Its disciples even have their own language, rituals and a determination to root out sinners through what has become known as ‘cancel culture’.
In The New Puritans, Andrew Doyle powerfully examines the underlying belief-systems of this ideology, and how it has risen so rapidly to dominate all major political, cultural and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand where these new puritans came from and what they hope to achieve. Written in the spirit of optimism and understanding, Doyle offers an eloquent and powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values and explains why it’s important we act now.
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Reviews
In this lucid, important book, the satirist and commentator Andrew Doyle zeroes in on the religiosity of these movements . . . He is supremely erudite and writes beautifully. Anyone with an interest in contemporary culture and politics should read this book.
The first thing to be said about this book is that Andrew Doyle can write. He writes fluently, with examples, with an amusing sense of irony, and he writes convincingly . . . fine prose, razor sharp wit, and insight
Doyle writes exceptionally well and he backs up his j'accuse with copious illustrations of ideological excess . . . University no-platformers like to say that 'words are violence'. If so, Doyle's are rapiers.
Doyle succeeds in doing what few writers have managed: he gives form to that nebulous movement known as woke . . . The New Puritans is a sucker punch of truth rendered in a seductively rhythmic prose
This is a serious book about a serious subject - the arrogation of moral purity and cultural orthodoxy by a small but influential posse, and Doyle's anger and disbelief come through on every page.
Doyle's study is sprinkled with humour and is analytical and timely. One doesn't have to agree with it fully to recognise he speaks plenty of sense.
The New Puritans is a passionate and erudite exposé of the modern-day social-justice movement. With clarity and precision, Doyle exposes its countless flaws and hypocrisies. His book is an essential guide for anyone looking to understand why the culture war has grown so hot.
The New Puritans is a fusillade of uncompromising reason but reason with compassion. Andrew Doyle has written a masterful broadside against the woke that will also discomfit the anti-woke, proposing to both the radical notion that rather than being identities, we embrace our status as individuals.
This is a finely written, closely argued book on an alarming and all-pervasive social development. Doyle hopes that it will soon become obsolete - if it doesn't, say farewell to liberal Britain
Doyle isn't the first author to examine the methods and motivations of woke fanatics, and he won't be the last. However, I doubt whether anyone will do so with more style or generosity of spirit . . .
If future historians were to recommend only one book to help readers understand the "Critical Social Justice" madness that consumed the West in the early twenty-first century, it would be The New Puritans. Written by one of the ideology's most articulate and effective critics, Dr. Andrew Doyle's timeless perspective detailing the ideological takeover of venerable institutions also provides an impassioned defense of liberalism. A must read.
This book is a call to arms in an existential battle . . . it's thrilling to be led by such a brilliant commander
A sober but devastating skewering of cancel culture and the moral certainties it shares with religious fundamentalism
The New Puritans - thanks to Doyle's academic background - is scholarly and rigorous. He knows a great deal more about the theory he's criticising than most of his opponents