The Reactionary Mind

• Makes a controversial claim that is sure to generate debate: that the men and women of the right, from Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott to Sarah Palin and Antonin Scalia, are united by a common political project
• Written by a well-known and well-regarded observer of the contemporary political and cultural scene

Readership: General readers, students, and scholars interested in American Politics and Political Theory.

Corey Robin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College and Graduate Center, CUNY

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.

"This little book will continue to spark controversy: it is a witty, erudite and opinionated account of one of the most significant movements of our time." - Joanna Bourke, 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

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

Read an interview with Corey in Salon: How conservatism conquered America