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Corey Robin : The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin . (Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2011. Pp. xiii, 290.)
Book Reviews: POWER BESIEGED, POWER PROTECTED
The history of conservatism is rich and varied; there are thoughtful histories of it to be written. This book, sadly, is not one of them. Its title promises great things: a discussion of the "mind" of conservatives, the discovery that it is "reactionary," and a sweep that extends from the French Revolution to today's headlines. In reality, this is a collection of recycled essays and book reviews (all of the dozen pieces are previously published, including three each from the London Review of Books and the Nation), each focusing on one or more conservative figures or ideas. But a common theme does not make for coherence and this volume demonstrates the pitfalls of this type of collection.
In the introduction, as one might expect, Robin tries to establish some baseline claims that will be pursued in the volume. He defines conservatism as "a meditation on--and theoretical rendition of--the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back" (4). Later, he adds that the "priority of conservative political argument has been the maintenance of private regimes of power--even at the cost of the strength and integrity of the state" (15). Thus conservatism is about "power besieged and power protected" (28). Power, threat, and...