The Reactionary Mind - Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump (Broché)

Hailed as "the book that predicted Trump" by The New Yorker and `one of the more influential political works of the last decade" by The Washington Monthly, Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind offers an indispensable guide to contemporary politics and a startling reassessment of a centuries-old tradition. In this second edition of The Reactionary Mind, revised and extended to reflect Donald Trump's election and first months in office, Robin shows that Trump is not a break with the conservative tradition, but its fulfillment.
Through a brilliant reading of Trump's speeches and writings, Robin shows that the madness and mayhem of the American president reflect a long tradition of right-wing politics, extending from Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche to Antonin Scalia and Ayn Rand. But, in a final twist, Robin argues that that politics is weaker than most people realize. Trump's serial failures in the White House are not simply his own ; they are symptoms of the right's flagging energies and mounting incoherence.
Robin demonstrates here his trademark gifts as a reader : an antenna for the unanticipated argument, an acute historical sensibility about what is old and new in the conservative tradition, and a flair for innovative and heterodox interpretations.