The Social Affairs Unit addresses social, economic and cultural issues with an emphasis on the value of personal responsibility. We research, challenge and debate issues from welfare to warfare, always seeking to draw out the role of the individual's obligations.

We identify research with a potential to inform public policy and translate it from academic discourse into public debate. The ideas we promote come largely from historians, sociologists and philosophers but also medical doctors and hard scientists.

Analysis, commentary and reviews by the Social Affairs Unit's authors are found on our constantly updated web review or, sorted by topic, at SAU Articles. This website also enables visitors to purchase our books and reports. A selection of these, along with our digital-only reports, are available to read online.

The Social Affairs Unit is the publisher of Standpoint, the monthly cultural and political news-stand magazine launched in June 2008.

William Trevor's prose approaches us in an unassuming way, only suddenly to lay hold on us with an enigmatic, undeniable grip: Love and Summer - William Trevor David Womersley

John Burrow's chose the sane face of Whiggism, argues David Womersley: Lord Macaulay's History of England: Introduced and Selected by John Burrow David Womersley

David Womersley asks, was the collapse of communism inevitable? The Rise and Fall of Communism - Archie Brown David Womersley

A first-rate book which doesn't do what it says on the tin: Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery - Seymour Drescher Jeremy Black

Theodore Dalrymple finds much to dislike in a job ad in the British Medical Journal Theodore Dalrymple

Northern Rock is wrong to subsidise Newcastle United, argues Theodore Dalrymple Theodore Dalrymple

The Sexual Mores of the Wealthy Lower Classes - or Lincoln Allison on why footballers are no worse than academics or writers Lincoln Allison

Appeasement, Croatia and the Left: Brendan Simms remembers an encounter with Michael Foot Brendan Simms

Let us start by sacking all the international lawyers - Brendan Simms on the Iraq Inquiry Brendan Simms

Bruckner's bleak work shows not so much the futility of bourgeois life, as the futility of trying to escape it, argues Brendan Simms: Pains of Youth - Ferdinand Bruckner in a new version by Martin Crimp Brendan Simms

Private Views: Voices from the Frontline of British Culture
The Nation that Forgot God
In Search of the Moderate Muslim
War Since 1990
Don't Tread on Me: Anti-Americanism Abroad
What If? Counterfactualism and the Problem of History

Warning: Immigration Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth
Wealth And Poverty: A Jewish Analysis
How to Maximise Your Expenses: Advice to new Members of the European Parliament
Butler's Dilemma: Lord Butler's Inquiry and the Re-Assessment of Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction
British Anti-Americanism
Mr Blair's Messiah Politics: A story of inspired government, 1997-2007