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The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin 1st Edition

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Corey Robin (Author)
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Corey Robin (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 52 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0199793747
ISBN-10: 0199793743
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (September 29, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0199793743
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199793747
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1 x 5.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsMuch-needed shock treatment for progressives
By Mike Sugarbaker on March 5, 2013
Format: Paperback
Many of us on the American left like to believe that there are two Republican agendas: the red-meat, culture-war stuff, and the real game of corporatism going on underneath the cover of populist theater. (Heck, a lot of Republicans believe a variation of this.) Many of us, if not most, also continue to indulge ourselves in the self-flattering fantasy that the right is just kind of deluded, and if we explain the facts slowly and carefully, then *this* time, they'll come around.

George Lakoff hurled the first brick at these notions with his books Moral Politics and Don't Think of an Elephant, but in the end, Lakoff is a linguist, and his language-focused approach was, maybe inevitably, superficial. Corey Robin finishes the job. As this book shows, you need a deeper philosophical underpinning either to have the kind of success the right has had in the last 40 years, or to fight it. Not only is the conservative agenda coherent, simple, and well backed by hundreds of years of intellectual tradition, but that backing is much scarier than advertised - founded as it is on the belief that "some are fit, and thus ought, to rule others."

The Reactionary Mind is chiefly an analysis rather than a history, but it does back up its analysis, in a way that isn't shrill (well, okay, the chapter on Ayn Rand is pretty indulgent and unenlightening, but you don't need to read it to get the rest of the argument). Opinion may be the star of this show, but in a country swimming in useless and redundant progressive opinion, Robin's offers the tremendous relief of actually understanding what you are up against. Lakoff got a lot wrong, but he was right that the left needs more than just a list of grievances. Robin clarifies a way of thinking about conservatism that will strengthen your will to fight, and is already strengthening the left's arguments in the public sphere.
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5.0 out of 5 starsInteresting and not what you think
By T. Tucker on January 10, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
A lot of people seem to think that is book is an anti-conservative screed. In fact, it's a pretty sympathetic portrait of conservatism that gets to the appeal of conservative philosophy, in particular its inherent romanticism. As a political observer, I've always had trouble understanding how conservatives think. This book helped me a lot with that.

The introduction is the strongest part of the book, in my opinion. There is a bit of meandering in the middle -- in particular the discussion of two former conservatives and of American policy in Latin America seem a bit tangential to the overall discussion. Still, a very good, informative read overall.
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5.0 out of 5 starsBest book on conservatism
By Iveta Kazoka on January 15, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
There is not much literature on what it means to be conservative (outside the very specific US context). OK, there is an essay by Michael Oakeshott, but it was written in ... 1956.

So Corey Robin has written the most enlightening book on conservativism there is. In contrast to romanticized perspective of Michael Oakeshott, in this book conservativism is being viewed more as a revanchist outlook which develops as a reaction against emancipation initatives of the left.

Ayn Rand and Antonin Scalia are treated quite harshly in the book - it is not for me to decide whether such attitude is or is not justified, but those two chapters are quite entertaining to read. The author does not insist that all conservatism is bad or silly though, the idea that stuck in my mind after having finished the book is that "the conservative speaks for a special type of victim: one who has lost something of value". I consider this to be a profound observation that in itself would have been a sufficient reason to read the book.
10 Comments 49 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsHolds together well (and I appreciate the occasional invective!)
By Amazon Customer on November 24, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I'm so glad I ignored the NYTimes review of this book. Corey Robin provides a coherent synthesis of a whole host of thinkers and thinking, bringing them under one "conservative" umbrella. Robin connects each piece of his argument to an overarching logical framework and I therefore don't understand what it means that he is preaching to the "converted" and this is just red meat for lefties. While progressives may be more open than a conservative to Robin's ideas, this book doesn't preach or rally leftist troops at all. Rather, his book provides a comprehensive explanation, that sort of which I've never run across before summarized in this fashion, of conservative motives and thinking. Just because he pops Ayn Rand once or twice doesn't take away from a solid book.
24 Comments 59 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsa mixed bag
By D. Donaldson on September 19, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Robin's book is a collection of recent essays. As such, it's focus can wander. For readers attracted by its title, the strength of the book is in its first few chapters, where Robin makes a strong case for a re-evaluation of the relevance of conservative original thinkers, such as Burke and de Maistre, and for the origins of conservatism as organically linked to the forces of its opposition. The discussion of conservatism as a dialectical movement balancing declarations of preservation with a real program of violent counter revolutionary violence is revealing of seeming contradictions between the rhetoric and practice of contemporary conservatism in the US, and to a degree the UK is compelling.

The final chapter, on conservatism and violence does a very good job of synthesizing what has been discussed in earlier chapters. It in itself is an excellent thesis on the conflicted nature of conservatism, and how conservatism suffers from its own success, with a neat historical survey of similar phases of conservatism included. This is the strength of the book.

My criticisms are of the middle chapters, which are far less focused, and contribute little to the book's value. And, there is a tendency for Robin to present conservatism as oddly immutable, and only partly, or not at all a capable of introspection and change. This may be true, but I doubt it. Conservatism is not a reflection of Nietzsche's Eternal Return of the Same. But Robin seems to want to frame the emergence of the Tea Party as part of an immutable template. This does not feel right. The questions seem to be, what distinguishes conservatism from Fascism, and is that part of what we are seeing?Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsLeftist stereotypes, not objective analysis

I only read the downloaded sample, which did it's job of revealing the book. The author correctly identifies Edmund Burke as a key founder of conservative political thought. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Roy W. Latham
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Excellent History of Conservatism

Cory Robin is an American political theorist, journalist, and professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Randolph Eck
4.0 out of 5 starsEmpire Strikes Back!

"The TORIES, as men, were enemies to oppression; and also as ENGLISHMEN, they were enemies to arbitrary power. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Jason Bowden
4.0 out of 5 starsfascinating and thought provoking

If genealogy, in particular political genealogy is your thing, this book brilliantly lays out the family tree of reactionaries, conservatives, and other right leaning people. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Jane Mayhew
4.0 out of 5 starsGreat Book on the Different facets of the conservative mindset

If you're one of those people that enjoy books on the conservative psyche or books on the conservative movement ( United States and the U.K.), then this is the book for you.

Published 8 months ago by Chris ODonnell
4.0 out of 5 starsRequired Reading

This book should be required reading for liberals and progressives just to get an idea of where conservatives are "coming from". Read more

Published 8 months ago by David J. Popowski
4.0 out of 5 starsIt makes the point--economically but powerfully--that "good old days"...

It makes the point--economically but powerfully--that "good old days" conservatism of Burke and company is no less brutal and self-interested than its contemporary variants... Read more

Published 8 months ago by tom jimmerson
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

title accurate. fluid read.

Published 9 months ago by Eugene Murphy
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, but not quite satisfying

This book waxes a bit too philosophic for my tastes, but it does game the conservative movement into some coherence, particularly around the notions of 1) a true sense of loss... Read more

Published 10 months ago by David Cooke
4.0 out of 5 starsInto the Heart of Darkness: Corey Robin's The Reacionary Mind:...

This author, obviously a scholar as well as a professional journalist, does a thorough job of describing the conservative mind, which is by its very nature reactionary; but which... Read more

Published 11 months ago by jmfthird

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