[WS:] I do not think it is the purpose of his book. He goes on this tangent when he discusses the South, which is interesting but a tangent nonetheless. Sheri Berman in her review is trying to make it into the main purpose of Robin's book, but I do not think she is convincing. As I see, the main point of this book is to make a distinction between conservatives and reactionaries and portray the latter as those using revolutionary methods for counter-revolutionary goals, and the book succeeds in attaining this goal. Of course, there is question whether this exhausts the range of reactionary behaviors, but even if does not, it is not a valid criticism of the book. If one develops a diagnostic test for, say, stomach cancer it would be invalid to criticize it for not being able to diagnose colon cancer.
Wojtek