The reactionary mind : conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin /
Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With...
Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
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Autor principal: | |
Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
Idioma: | Inglés |
Publicado: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
©2011.
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Temas: | |
Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
Sumario: | Late in life, William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is "boring," said the founding father of the American right. "Devoting your life to it," as conservatives do, "is horrifying if only because it's so repetitious. It's like sex." With this unlikely conversation began Robin's decade-long foray into the conservative mind. What is conservatism, and what's truly at stake for its proponents? If capitalism bores them, what excites them? Tracing conservatism back to its roots in the reaction against the French Revolution, Robin argues that the right is fundamentally inspired by a hostility to emancipating the lower orders. Some conservatives endorse the free market, others oppose it. Some criticize the state, others celebrate it. Underlying these differences is the "counterrevolutionary experience": the need to defend power and privilege against movements demanding freedom and equality. Abhorring stasis, conservatives have opted for a dynamic conception of politics and society--one that involves self-transformation, violence, and war. This capacity for reinvention has been crucial to their success. Written by a keen, highly regarded observer of the contemporary political scene, The Reactionary Mind ranges widely, from Edmund Burke to Antonin Scalia, from John C. Calhoun to Ayn Rand. It advances the notion that all rightwing ideologies, from the eighteenth century through today, are historical improvisations on a theme: the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back |
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Descripción Física: | 1 online resource (xiii, 290 pages) |
Bibliografía: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
ISBN: | 9780199793938 019979393X 1283232251 9781283232258 0190252553 9780190252557 9786613232250 6613232254 0199911886 9780199911882 |