Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession. Capitalism is “boring,” he told me. “Devoting your life to it,” as conservatives do, “is horrifying if only because it’s so repetitious. It’s like sex.” Since that conversation ten years ago, I’ve been asking what is conservatism and what’s at stake for its proponents. This book is my answer.
From the French Revolution to the Tea Party, conservatism has been a reactionary movement, a defense of power and privilege against democratic challenges from below, particularly in the private spheres of the family and the workplace.
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“I confess to being one of those who likes to divide conservatives into their parts as opposed to treating them as a whole. Robin makes a vigorous case that I am wrong, and I am tempted by his analysis….Robin is an engaging writer, and just the kind of broad-ranging public intellectual all too often missing in academic political science.”
—The New Republic
“A very readable romp through the evils of Conservatism.”
—The Guardian/Observer
“‘The Reactionary Mind’ certainly cuts hard against the common view that the radical populist conservatism epitomized by Sarah Palin represents a sharp break with the cautious, reasonable, moderate, pragmatic conservatism inaugurated by the 18th-century British statesman Edmund Burke….This counterrevolutionary spirit, Mr. Robin argues, animates every conservative, from the Southern slaveholders to Ayn Rand to Antonin Scalia, to name just a few of the figures he pulls into his often slashing analysis.”
—New York Times
“…ground-breaking book…”
—Rolling Stone
“If conservatives have been the ‘left’s best students,’ Robin teaches the Left to become better students of the Right.”
—Dissent
“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
“‘The Reactionary Mind’ demands to be taken seriously by conservatives, and it helps that it’s written with panache. The series of scholarly strikes Robin makes against conventional wisdom are often exhilarating.”
—The Daily
“Robin, a New York-based political scientist and regular contributor to publications like The Nation and the London Review of Books, has written an original book with an armful of theses that shed revealing light on the whys and wherefores of right-wing politics in the United States and beyond.”
—The National
“Stemming from a conversation he had with the late William F. Buckley, Robin’s book provides clear, well-documented insight on how the right came to be what it now is.”
—Washington Times
“I feel sure that if trapped on a desert island with the man, I should soon commit suicide.”
—The American Conservative
“We asked our editors what they’ve been reading lately, and almost all of us have been reading for Occupy Wall Street. We recommend Corey Robin’s Reactionary Mind, the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, and Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.”
—n+1
“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. 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, showing the power of this idea by illuminating conservatives both sublime and ridiculous.”
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, Princeton University
“Beautifully written, these essays deepen our understanding of why conservatism remains a powerful force in American politics.”
—Joyce Appleby, UCLA and past president of the American Historical Association
“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. Some readers will enjoy Corey Robin’s dismantling of Barry Goldwater, Antonin Scalia, and Irving Kristol; others will enjoy his demolition of Ayn Rand. Some will be uncomfortable when they discover that those who too lightly endorse state violence, and even torture, include some of their friends. That is one of the things that makes this such a good book.”
—Alan Ryan, Oxford University
Watching your C-Span interview I find a fatal flaw in your book. You don’t consider the scientific description of the conservative mind as seen in the classic study in Psychological Bulletin, “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition.” by John T. Jost, Jack Glaser, Arie W. Kruglanski, and Frank J. Sulloway as it applies to left wing conservatism (Stalin, Pol Pot, Caescescu, etc). You make the common mistake of identifying conservatism as a strictly right wing feature leaving left conservatism to be identified as whatever one wants. The scientific definition of conservatism does not differentiate between left and right because its characteristics are common to both sides. That coupled with your right libertarian slant and the right wing bombshell doing the interview, leaves a lot to be desired. You would both be a good fit for FOX, not C-Span.
The four authors write: “”People embrace political conservatism (at least in part) because it serves to reduce fear, anxiety and uncertainty; to avoid change, disruption and ambiguity; and to explain, order and justify inequality among groups and individuals.” To come to this conclusion the authors examined 88 different psychological studies conducted between 1958 and 2002 that involved 22,818 people from 12 different countries. They boiled that information down into a number of psychological attributes that are closely associated with people who are politically conservative.
A synopsis can be found here:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Conservatives_Deconstruct.html
I really enjoyed and gained insight from the book. I was a bit disappointed that most of it was the old articles themselves. The format left most of the conceptual heavy lifting to the introduction and the book could have been much better if it were written from scratch. It also opened the door to some criticism. Yet I was really shocked by Marc Lilla’s review and his reply to your reply. It was not serious criticism. It was almost character assassination. His nonsense about “false consciousness” which seems to me almost the opposite of your argument, was particularly unbelievable. He practically revoked your Licentia Docendi. Given that this attack came from an establishment that is generally left of center, I think that calls for an explanation. Why is your argument to threatening at this particular moment in history, not the the Right, but to people like Lilla. I hope you take the time to offer a reflection on that question.