The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

One of the common arguments against secession, Texas or otherwise, is that the act is illegal. “Why, the Supreme Court said in Texas v. White in 1869 that a State cannot unilaterally secede!” I’ll give you the answer I provided at a Ron Paul event in 2010: So what? There are so many things wrong with that decision, but most important is that it is …more

What created American “gun culture”? If you listen to dimwits like Nick Buttrick, the South. More specifically, wait for it, SLAVERY. You see, gun culture was born out of white Southern fear of black people. They started packing heat because they hated blacks and feared for their lives after the War. Buttrick argues that before the “Civil War,” Americans did not really own firearms. They …more

Allen Guelzo is perhaps my least favorite establishment historian. That’s saying something. Conservatives love him. He has a great radio or documentary voice and speaks with authority. He is intelligent and holds the right views on a number of issues. But “conservatives” like Guelzo have a fatal flaw that will always result in enhancing the left. They can’t help but praise Lincoln and a “nationalist” …more

For weeks, I was relatively skeptical about Republican chances for success in the 2022 election. I blasted Oz and Hershel Walker as bad candidates and argued that the Grand Old Stupid Party would mess up a golden opportunity to gain control of the Congress. Then I bought the polling numbers leading into November 8 and predicted that the Republicans would have a 54-46 seat majority …more

Did you end democracy today? Yesterday I wrote that the founding generation may have reconsidered their support for “democracy” if they could see the current state of American politics. But then again, maybe not. In colonial Virginia, it was commonplace to provide potential voters with rum, beer, whiskey, ginger cakes, and other assorted goodies, perhaps even free lodging on the night before the election. A …more

We are in the home stretch of the most important election of our lifetimes. This one just surpasses the 2020 election, which was the next most important election of our lifetime. That election was slightly more important than the 2018 election, which was only a bit more important than the 2016 election. And if we don’t vote tomorrow, democracy dies. So do your children and …more

On Monday, I wrote about an article by Lafayette Lee that defined “patriotism” as a defense of people and place, not some ideological commitment to “natural rights” or some mythical founding expressed by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. Predictably, Straussian Glenn Ellmers found fault with it. You see, if you take on St. Abraham, the Straussians are going to lose their minds. How dare …more

I’ve long said that the real problem for American conservatism isn’t the left. They are predictable. No, the real issue for a truly conservative American political movement are so-called American conservatives that cling to the Lincolnian Myth of the American founding. You can’t spell conservative with 19th century radicalism. R.L. Dabney pointed this out in the late 19th century. The 19th century Republican Party never …more

The Lincoln myth is never going away. Why? Because people on both the “left” and “right” subscribe to it, so much so that Lincoln is the only person capable of saving democracy. At least that is what Jon Meacham argued in a recent piece at Time magazine. This is almost psychopathy. Meacham thinks Joe Biden needs to take a page from “Honest Abe” and use …more

Eric Foner thinks “presentism” is a pretty good idea. Of course, because “presentism” undergirds Foner’s scholarship. In a recent review of a new book about C. Vann Woodward, Foner concludes that Woodward’s “presentism” helped bring attention to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. You see, to Foner, historical activism in the name of a good cause isn’t really “presentism,” it’s reality. But …more