The Reactionary Mind Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin

by Robin, Corey

• ISBN13: 9780199793747
• ISBN10: 0199793743
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What is conservatism today? And what is its intellectual lineage? InThe Reactionary Mind, Corey Robin makes a strikingly bold claim about the right's intellectual foundations. He contends that from the eighteenth century through today, the right has been united by a defense of inequality and privilege and a deep hostility to all forms of progressive politics. The book ranges widely, locating the origins of conservative thought in the works of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre before turning to figures such as John C. Calhoun, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, and even Sarah Palin. Robin acknowledges that there are differences among various thinkers and movements, but he stresses that focusing on internal conflict blinds us to the unifying "counterrevolutionary experience" that threads through modern history--the defense of class privilege and a profound aversion toward freedom and egalitarianism.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Epigraph	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 3
Profiles in Reaction
Conservatism and Counterrevolution	p. 41
The First Counterrevolutionary	p. 61
Garbage and Gravitas	p. 76
Inside Out	p. 97
The Ex-Cons	p. 109
Affirmative Action Baby	p. 130
Virtues of Violence
A Color-Coded Genocide	p. 151
Remembrance of Empires Past	p. 161
Protocols of Machismo	p. 184
Potomac Fever	p. 201
Easy to Be Hard	p. 217
Conclusion	p. 246
Notes	p. 249
Index	p. 281
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.