What is conservatism today? And what is its intellectual lineage? InThe Reactionary Mind, Corey Robin makes a strikingly bold claim about the right's intellectual foundations. He contends that from the eighteenth century through today, the right has been united by a defense of inequality and privilege and a deep hostility to all forms of progressive politics. The book ranges widely, locating the origins of conservative thought in the works of Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre before turning to figures such as John C. Calhoun, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, and even Sarah Palin. Robin acknowledges that there are differences among various thinkers and movements, but he stresses that focusing on internal conflict blinds us to the unifying "counterrevolutionary experience" that threads through modern history--the defense of class privilege and a profound aversion toward freedom and egalitarianism.