The Brion McClanahan Show

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com I would be surprised if many of my listeners have heard of the Richmond Junto, but after hearing this podcast I hope you'll 1) agree that they are an important part of American constitutional thought, and 2) purchase How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America so you can read more about them. If you want slashing...

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com What is American populism? Donald Trump has been called a populist. Is he? Journalist Daniel Levy thinks almost anything in American history could be classified as "populist." This is wrong on so many levels I had to do a show on the topic. Perhaps if we had a better understanding of American populism we would...

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com You've probably heard this before: "You Jefferson lovers conveniently forget that Jefferson disregarded the Constitution when it worked for him. Just look at the Louisiana Purchase!" I tackle this supposed inconsistency and how to give it back to these "gotcha" nincompoops in this episode of The Brion McClanaha...

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The Whig Party is perhaps the most misunderstood political party in American history. Most people simply equate it with Henry Clay and the American System--a repackaged version of Hamilton's economic proposals from the 1790s. But the earliest "Whigs" were in fact Southern state's rights advocates who bristled a...

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://blamehamilton.com Anytime someone mentions Abraham Lincoln unconstitutionally called up the militia in 1861, you are immediately bombarded with the Militia Act of 1792 and 1795. See, you hayseed, Lincoln DID follow the Constitution. Is that true? Not really. Get the scoop.

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://blamehamilton.com How do we measure political consent and what does consent have to do with nullification? These are important questions and in order to find the answers we have to travel to the American colonial experience and the Era of Salutary Neglect and the twenty years before the American War for Independence. I give a history of nullification and d...

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support Hillsdale College President Larry Arn has done a nice job marketing the college and making "conservative" ideas relevant. The "Constitution Minute" is heard across conservative talk radio, and their free courses on the Constitution and American history attract tens of thousands of "students." Arn, however, is a Jaffaite and a Straussian w...

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com "No taxation without representation!" This is what most Americans will tell you started the American War for Independence. But is that true? The cause is, in fact, deeper than that. It was a constitutional crisis that had major implications for American government moving forward. I talk about the real conflict and what it means for America today...

http://learntruehistory.com http://blamehamilton.com Most Americans take for granted the perilous conditions the first English settlers had to endure in the wilds of 17th century Virginia. A PC narrative would portray these people as little more than barbarians stealing land. But the story behind these people and their impact on what became American culture is so much more interesting--and not PC.

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com Not many Americans know anything about the Culper Ring, the intrepid group of American patriots and spies who helped Washington during his difficult tenure in New York during the War. AMC brought the ring to life in the series Turn. While fun to watch, the show lacks historical accuracy. I discuss the show, the Ring, and several of the historica...

A listener asked me to discuss the supposed "flip" of the major American political parties. The narrative is that the Republicans used to be the Democrats and the Democrats used to be the Republicans. This is simply untrue. I discuss both parties and the myth of the "flip" on Episode 87 of The Brion McClanahan Show. https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://lear...

http://learntruehistory.com Now Take 'em Down NOLA wants to remove the statue of Andrew Jackson. This was predictable. Jackson seems to be an easy target. After all, he will be removed from the $20 Federal Reserve Note and millennials think he hunted American Indians for sport. That is simply not true. Jackson was a mixed bag. He was a real American hero but as President he abused power. I thought...

http://learntruehistory.com 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 Ba...

http://learntruehistory.com 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 years before that...

http://learntruehistory.com 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 ar...

http://learntruehistory.com 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 grea...

http://learntruehistory.com 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 monumen...

http://learntruehistory.com 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...

http://learntruehistory.com 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?"

http://learntruehistory.com 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...

http://learntruehistory.com 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.

http://learntruehistory.com 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 not w...

http://learntruehistory.com Stop the press! The nationalists in the founding generation fabricated history! If you listen to this podcast, this shouldn't be news, but just this week, two scholars at Harvard University have provided conclusive proof that the nationalists had to make up a document to prove their position. That document they made up is none other than the Declaration of Independence....

http://learntruehistory.com Most Americans have never heard of E.L. Godkin. This is a travesty, particularly for those who admire independent thinkers. Every libertarian should know Godkin, and I wrote about him in my Forgotten Conservatives in American History. He was one of the truly great minds of the late 19th century, a man who was able to see the what the world was becoming and criticize it...

http://learntruehistory.com On April 16, 1865, "Lincoln's hordes" moved through Columbus, GA and destroyed the city. This was the culmination of another "march to the sea," but this time a "march to the river." More Americans should know about this arm of the Union's "hard hand of war" policy toward the South.