Most people have never heard of Josiah Bailey of North Carolina. He was one of the few voices railing against the excesses of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and helped author “The Conservative Manifesto” in 1937. Garland Tucker featured him in his Conservative Heroes, a nice little book that is a good companion to Forgotten Conservatives in American History. I discuss Bailey, Southern Democrats, and the …more
Stephen Kinzer has written a number of marvelous books, and his latest The True Flag is no exception. Kinzer argues that the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the debates that swirled about the future of American policy at the time are the origins of our modern imperial impulse. There is some truth to this, but I also think that we have to go back fifty …more
John Randolph of Roanoke is one of the more important political figures in American history. His thoughts on foreign policy, government, and society are worth studying, but it was his status as an aristocrat that should have everyone take notice. Randolph “loved liberty,” and it was his independence achieved by being a planter that made liberty possible. Randolph the aristocrat was different than Jeff Bezos …more
A listener asked if there were any historical examples of foreign influence in American government or any good examples, other than Nixon, of major corruption in the executive branch. Of course! I wrote an entire book on bad presidents, 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America, but my latest tome, How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America, details Hamilton’s role as the greatest villain in American history. …more
Memorial Day is Monday. Most Americans don’t realize that the holiday would not exist without the Confederacy. In fact, the first Memorial Day was held in Columbus, GA in 1866 to honor Confederate dead. It spread across the South and was later co-opted by Union veterans in 1868. The holiday was often seen as a time of reconciliation. With Confederate symbols and monuments under attack, …more
This is a listener generated episode. Did Jefferson really believe that the general government had the authority to create a “wall between church and state?” Of course not, but this phrase has been used–and distorted–by the general government since the 1960s to knock down any semblance of religion in public life. I discuss the complete picture without the spin in this episode of The Brion …more
Why was slavery an important issue in antebellum America? A 2017 response would be because we have a moral aversion to the institution, but that was not the case in the period leading up to the War. Saying “slavery” in 2017 creates a false narrative about American history. I answer the question, “Why slavery?”
Donald Trump’s recent foray into American history excited the vitriol of the academic Left in America. They believe there is a right wing/libertarian bogeyman hiding in every closet and these people have to be exposed and denounced in an Orwellian two-minutes of hate rant. I call this the Arlington Road Syndrome. What they don’t realize is that their version of American history is the dominant …more
Donald Trump stepped in it, again. But did he? He committed the ultimate heresy yesterday by suggesting that the Civil War [sic] could have been avoided. The Left went nuts and ran out their revisionists version of the War. I discuss Trump, Lincoln, and the War on this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.
Donald Trump recently tweeted that the 100 days benchmark was a silly idea. He was right, but the question is, where does this come from? Why do Americans insist on measuring a presidency by this standard? It comes from the great Dictator in Chief Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Americans should run away from the first 100 days benchmark like it has the plague. This is …more
Most Americans recognize a few of the Founding Fathers—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Franklin—but what about some of the important but forgotten men who have been lost to time? They have great stories that need to be told. Here are ten whose fantastic lives are in many ways better than fiction.
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