European Cities vs. American Cities

Sir Roger Scruton offers some powerful comparison between the development patterns of European and American cities, specifically remarks about how the British have managed to maintain a distinct separation between city and countryside, while American cities seem so sprawl endlessly, destroying their surrounding countryside and it’s natural beauty in the process.

Mr. Scruton is an English Conservative professor and author, and has written much about the development and architectural patterns of traditional civic design. Here he speaks at Hillsdale College on a range of topics, including the rediscovery of and appreciation for traditional Western culture. He chooses to end his talk by contrasting the traditional development patterns and presents a challenge to conservatives: that to be a Conservative is, in the best sense of the term, to be someone who first Recognizes that there is something here worth conserving - and then gets about trying to understand and appreciate just what that is, drawing lessons for the future from the patterns of the past.