Reading Group: Know Your Enemy (Autumn 2025)

A Reading Group on Conservatism, Reaction, and the Right

Part 1: Conservative Movements

(19 Sep)          Theorising Reaction

Corey Robin, “The Private Life of Power,” The Reactionary Mind (2017)

A O Hirschmann, Chapter 1, The Rhetoric of Reaction (1991)

(26 Sep)          Reactionary Classics

Edmund Burke, “Letter to a Member of the National Assembly” (1791)

Friedrich Nietzsche, from On the Genealogy of Morality (1888)

(3 Oct)             Fascism

Carl Schmitt, from The Concept of the Political (1932)

Alberto Toscano, from Late Fascism (2023)

(10 Oct)           Neoliberalism

Friedrich Hayek, “Freedom and the Economic System” (1938)

Friedrich Hayek, “Why I Am Not a Conservative” (1960)

Quinn Slobodian, Intro & Chapter 1, Hayek’s Bastards (2024)

Part 2: The Silicon Valley Right

(17 Oct)           Neoconservatism

Leo Strauss, from Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952)

Peter Thiel, “The Straussian Moment” (2007)

Quinn Slobodian, Chapters 2 & 3, Hayek’s Bastards (2024)

(24 Oct)           Eugenics & AI

Nick Bostrom, “Existential Risks” (2002)

Timnit Gebru and Emile Torres, “The TESCREAL Bundle” (2024)

Quinn Slobodian, Chapter 4, Hayek’s Bastards (2024)

(31 Oct)           Tech Libertarianism

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “On Free Immigration and Forced Integration” (1999)

David Golumbia, from Cyberlibertarianism (2024)

Quinn Slobodian, Chapter 5 & Conc, Hayek’s Bastards (2024)

(7 Nov)           Whiteness & Technology

Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1950)

Jordan S. Carroll, from Speculative Whiteness (2024)

Geoff Shullenberger, “The Faith of Nick Land” (2025)

Part 3: Reaction Beyond Silicon Valley

(14 Nov)         The Russian Right

Alexander Dugin, The Fourth Political Theory (2012)

Marlene Laruelle, Is Russia Fascist? (2021)

(21 Nov)         Anti-Feminism      

Joan Didion, “The Women’s Movement” (1972)

Phyllis Schlafly, “What’s Wrong with ‘Equal Rights’ for Women” (1972)

Helen Andrews, “The Great Feminization” (2025)

Andrea Dworkin, Right-Wing Women (1983)

(28 Nov)         Diagonal Politics

Ted Kaczynski, Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger (2023)