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The Enigma of Clarence Thomas Spiral-Bound | 2020-11-17

Corey Robin

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"Important and well-argued. . . A thoughtful and careful explication of Thomas's core ideas . . . This is as good a synthesis of Thomas's intellectual world as we are likely to get."
?The Washington Post

Most people can tell you two things about Clarence Thomas: Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, and he almost never speaks from the bench. Here are some things they don't know: Thomas is a black nationalist. In college he memorized the speeches of Malcolm X. He believes white people are incurably racist.


In a groundbreaking work, Corey Robin--one of the foremost analysts of the right--delves deeply into both Thomas's biography and his jurisprudence. The hidden source of Thomas's conservative views, he demonstrates, is a profound skepticism that racism can be overcome. There's a reason why liberals complain that Thomas doesn't speak but seldom pay attention when he does: were they to listen, they'd hear a racial pessimism that often sounds similar to their own. This unacknowledged consensus about the impossibility of progress is key to understanding today's political stalemate.

Publisher: Macmillan
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1250772915
Item Weight: 0.6 lbs
Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
"Rigorous yet readable, frequently startling yet eminently persuasive . . . Incisive and superbly argued . . . It isn't every day that reading about ideas can be both so gratifying and unsettling."
?The New York Times


"The remarkable achievement of Robin's thoroughly researched, cogently argued work is that it makes a compelling case for what is, initially, a startling argument."
?Orlando Patterson, The New York Times Book Review

"Superb . . . A bold and original book . . . Robin makes what he calls Thomas's 'invisible justice visible,' and in doing so he reveals the invisibility of Thomas himself."
?Frances Wilson, The Guardian

Corey Robin is the author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin and Fear: The History of a Political Idea. He teaches political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Robin's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, the London Review of Books, and The Nation, among other publications, and has been translated into eleven languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.