The Brion McClanahan Show

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Was the United States founded as a "Christian nation?" David Barton will tell you so, and this has become a generally accepting talking point on the American right. But is it true? To be blunt, no, but not because Americans weren't predominantly Christian. They were, but America was never a "nation," and...

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Perhaps no issue is more contentious in the "Civil War" field than that of black Confederates. Did they exist? More importantly, how do we measure "support" during any period of war and what constitutes a "soldier?" Do men who are forcibly drafted into the army "support" the cause? How about non-combat su...

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com I have received several emails from listeners asking about the Articles of Confederation. Was it that bad? Did the Constitution fundamentally change the Union? What are the similarities between the Constitution and the Articles? Did the States secede from the Articles? Good news. I answer several of these...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The American Conservative published a piece last week by David Masciotra titled "The Darker Implications of Trump's Vulgarity." This piece is "never Trump" virtue signaling at its finest, but it is also a clear example of the historical ignorance of modern "political thinkers." Masciotra is a progressive...

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Donald Trump wants Congress to bring back so-called earmarks. This raised concern among some conservatives and libertarians. They believe earmarks lead to more spending and bloated budgets, earmarks are the best path to responsible, transparent government. Thomas Jefferson thought so, as did Madison and M...

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Was the antebellum South an "oligarchic" society? Many modern scholars seem to think so. One in particular, Forrest Nabors, argues that the South was only saved from itself by the noble Republican Party during Reconstruction. Before that point, the South was not "American" nor did it have "American" insti...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The neo-con historians strike again. Should we not expect this from the National Review? Of course, but a recent piece by "conservative" Jay Cost on "The Worst Presidents?" is particularly bad. Eric Foner could not have written it better. In fact, I wonder if Foner guest wrote the column. Cost considers P...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Podcasting has become an important part of mass media. It has allowed everyone with a voice, a hobby, or an opinion to have an outlet for mass media consumption. It has not always been so. Traditional radio dominated this type of media for decades, and its staying power even in the age of podcasting is un...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Urban America has never trusted rural America. That has been the case since the 18th century and it has not changed in 200 years. This dichotomy has created a political, economic, and social fissure in American life and is one of the more important trends in American history. The Wall Street Journal recen...

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com American politics has become a game of emotion. This is by design. We cannot have rational arguments because people "feel" their vote rather than "think" it. Such is the case with most cultural issues, from immigration to Confederate monuments. Paul Graham's book "Confederaphobia" outlines this nicely, bu...

simplesthttps://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com I hear many people--including "distinguished historians"--suggest that the War for Southern Independence can be explained by one word: slavery. Years ago I had someone tell me this was justified by "Occam's Razor," the idea that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. That might work...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Depending on who you ask, now that the dust has settled in the Roy Moore election and Trump has signed a new tax bill, all is either well or awful in the American Empire. It doesn't matter either way. Sure, I want to save money in taxes, doesn't everybody, but the tax bill and the Moore election are two r...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Historians like to keep things neat and tidy and thus often compartmentalize different periods in Western Civilization. The profession's infatuation with monographs has led to a climate where the "longue duree" is often overlooked. That is unfortunate because it misses the conjunction between political, m...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com A fan of the show emailed me asking what books, websites, etc. should he be reading to determine original intent. Of course my Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution was designed for that purpose, but there are several other good books and websites that discuss either originalism or provide the primar...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The ContraKrugman Podcast hosted by Tom Woods and Bob Murphy should be on your podcast rotation. If not, you are missing out. That said, they covered the Thanksgiving column by Paul Krugman on a recent episode that piqued my interest. Krugman, it seems, is a highly fearful man, but not over things that ra...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com As I discussed in my podcast episode "Hollywierd," pop culture is in decline in America, but there are a few nuggets that offer redemption. One is the recently concluded television series Longmire. The show reminded me of the classic series the Virginian, so I wanted to dive into the similarities and what...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://learntruehistory.com Over my vacation last week I received an email chain debating secession. One participant claimed that not only did the Constitution explicitly forbid secession, the founding generation thought it was illegal as well. For evidence, he cited a couple of lines from the Federalist and an incorrectly cited qu...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Several people emailed me a link to an article on Mises.org over the Thanksgiving week concerning tariffs and the "civil war" [sic]. The author of the article, Chris Calton, does a nice job with his podcast and is a thoughtful fellow, but he gets several things wrong, most importantly the real reason the...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Tom Fleming at the Fleming Foundation recently wrote several posts on social media about tradition. This was a Socratic exercise in defining tradition and other political terms with the goal of finding a deeper understanding of the "ism" of tradition. As Dr. Fleming illustrates, tradition and ideology are...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Tariffs are one of the more contentious issues in American history. The debate over their necessity and constitutionality begins in the period leading to the American War for Independence and has continued unabated since. They were a key ingredient in the "sectional conflict" and men both North and South...

http://learntruehistory.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support One common critique of Southern secession centers on the argument that it was a rich man's effort without any support from the rest of the South, or that less wealthy Southerners were duped into supporting a war for "rich men." Both of these arguments are false, and I explain why in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Kirkpatrick Sale is the leading authority on the discussion and study of size and scale in government. His 1980 book "Human Scale" is, in many respects, the basis of the "Think locally, Act locally" message. I discuss his conclusions, a new edition of his book, and the importance of small is beautiful on this episode of The Brion McCla...

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com This show is a little different because I discuss a historical subject without any contemporary commentary. This is all history, but I do approach it from a decidedly different perspective. There are some misconceptions about the Indian Removal Act and the several "Trail of Tears" that followed along with a misunderstanding of John Mar...

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Establishment historians have a new reason to throw a temper tantrum: General John Kelly. Kelly was the first guest on the new Laura Ingraham Angle on Fox News and according to these "actual historians," he stepped in it. Kelly had the audacity to call Robert E. Lee a great man and to opine that the War could have been avoided. This le...

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The Radical Republicans were fond of a constitutional theory known as "state suicide." Essentially, they believed that when the Southern States seceded from the Union, the State committed suicide and thus reverted to territorial status. This leads to several interesting legal and philosophical questions, not the least of which is what...