Introduction
Part 1: Profiles in Reaction
Conservatism and Counterrevolution
The First Counterrevolutionary
Garbage and Gravitas
Inside Out
The Ex-Cons
Affirmative Action Baby
Part 2: The Virtues of Violence
A Color-Coded Genocide
Remembrance of Empires Past
Protocols of Machismo
Potomac Fever
Easy to Be Hard
Conclusion
Corey Robin teaches political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, and the London Review of Books.
"The Reactionary Mind has emerged as one of the more influential
political works of the last decade." --Washington Monthly
"This little book will continue to spark controversy, but that is
not the reason to read it: it is a witty, erudite and opinionated
account of one of the most significant movements of our times."
--Times Higher Education
"Corey Robin's extraordinary collection, constantly fresh,
continuously sharp, and always clear and eloquent, provides the
only satisfactory philosophically coherent account of elite
conservatism I have ever read. Then there's this bonus: his
remarkably penetrating side inquiry into the notion of 'national
security' as a taproot of America's contemporary abuse of
democracy. It's all great, a model in the exercise of humane
letters."--Rick Perlstein, author of
Nixonland
"This book is a fascinating exploration of a central idea: that
conservatism is, at its heart, a reaction against democratic
challenges, in public and private life, to hierarchies of power and
status. Corey Robin leads us through a series of case studies over
the last few centuries--from Hobbes to Ayn Rand, from Burke to
Sarah Palin--showing the power of this idea by illuminating
conservatives both sublime and ridiculous."--Kwame Anthony Appiah,
Professor of
Philosophy, Princeton University
"Beautifully written, these essays deepen our understanding of why
conservatism remains a powerful force in American politics."--Joyce
Appleby, Professor Emerita of History, University of California-Los
Angeles, and past president of the American Historical
Association
"The Reactionary Mind is a wonderfully good read. It combines
up-to-the-minute relevance with an eye to the intellectual history
of conservatism in all its protean forms, going back as far as
Hobbes, and taking in not only restrained and sentimental defenders
of tradition such as Burke, but his more violent, proto-fascist
contemporary Joseph de Maistre. Some readers will enjoy Corey
Robin's dismantling of different recent thinkers--Barry
Goldwater,
Antonin Scalia, Irving Kristol; others will enjoy his demolition of
Ayn Rand's intellectual pretensions. Some will be uncomfortable
when they discover that those who too lightly endorse state
violence, and even
officially sanctioned torture, include some of their friends. That
is one of the things that makes this such a good book."--Alan Ryan,
Professor of Political Theory, Oxford University
"Robin is an engaging writer, and just the kind of broad-ranging
public intellectual all too often missing in academic political
science. ...Robin's arguments deserve widespread attention."--The
New Republic
"This is a very readable romp through the evils of
Conservatism."--The Guardian/Observer
"...an insightful book ... In a world where the old distinctions
between left and right seem to be getting stale, Robin's book
concentrates our minds on the deeper divisions."--The Daily
"It is a thoughtful, even-tempered sort of book. The old maid
tendency that dominates liberal polemic in the U.S.--the shrieking,
clutching at skirts, and jumping up on kitchen chairs that one gets
from a Joe Nocera, a Maureen Dowd, or a Keith Olbermann--is quite
absent. "--The American Conservative
"...the common opinion on the Left is that conservatives are
fire-breathing idiots, who make up in heat what they lack in light.
Robin's book is a welcome correction of this simplistic view and
puts the debate where it ought to be: on the force and content of
conservative ideas." --Dissent
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