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The Ideology of Political Reactionaries offers a new perspective on the beliefs reactionaries share, presenting a theory of reactionary ideology in the process. Rather than taking self-contradictions in the reactionary imagination as a reason for diminishment, complexity is taken as a challenge.
List of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: Reactionaries from Dispositions to Rhetoric
Part I: Indignation: The Pathos of Reaction
1. Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre
2. Sarah Palin and Donald Trump
Part II: Decadence: The Logos of Reaction
3. Adolf Hitler and Nazism
4. Éric Zemmour and Les nouveaux réactionnaires
Part III: Conspiracy: The Ethos of Reaction
5. Senator Joe McCarthy
6. Anders Breivik
7. Nigel Farage
8. Conclusion: Reactionaries from Appeals to Styles
Index
About the author
Richard Shorten is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the history of modern political ideas, particularly in twentieth-century Europe. He is the author of Modernism and Totalitarianism (2012). He has written widely on topics relating to extremism and political violence.
Summary
The Ideology of Political Reactionaries offers a new perspective on the beliefs reactionaries share, presenting a theory of reactionary ideology in the process. Rather than taking self-contradictions in the reactionary imagination as a reason for diminishment, complexity is taken as a challenge.
