The Brion McClanahan Author & Historian Blog

Last week, I received an email from someone who liked one of my books, but who could not figure out why I would suggest that the “Civil War” wasn’t about slavery. He wrote that he used to be a “neo-Confederate” like me, but after reading “all” of the primary documents, he changed his mind and now thinks that the War was about protecting the expansion …more

I missed “Constitution Day” last week. It was on purpose. It’s not that I don’t like the Constitution. I wrote a book on it, though I think Southerners wrote a better one in 1861. I also think the proponents of the Constitution duped wavering ratifiers into believing that it would maintain the original federal republic. It didn’t. I have also argued it needs amendments, and …more

When I was in graduate school, my roommate and I used to joke about how to de-legitimize the American presidency. We couldn’t have drawn up a better blueprint than Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Consider: 1. Both the 2016 and 2020 elections have been called illegitimate. 2. Trump was impeached twice, and if Republicans take control of the House in 2023, Biden will likely follow. …more

The pomp and circumstance following Queen Elizabeth II’s death provided a once in a lifetime spectacle. Tradition trumped modernism. Just about everyone enjoyed watching the show. Some leftists and grumpy woke idiots chimed in to offer their tired “white supremacy” opinions, and certainly the Irish were not impressed, but overall the ceremony was well received. Over five billion people watched it. That, more than anything …more

What is “American conservatism”? I’ve spent a lot of time on my podcast discussing this issue. I also co-authored a book on the topic with Clyde Wilson about a decade ago. If you haven’t picked that up, you should. This a large topic, and no one can sufficiently answer the question in a podcast or two, or perhaps even a book. But I know one …more

Yesterday I discussed the impact of emotion on American politics. No one can discount the power of the heart, even when it comes to a judge’s decision. Take for example most of the leftist decisions of the 20th century. They aren’t based on the Constitution. And one dean at a major West Coast law school admits it. You see, if we based legal decisions on …more

I’ve written two books with “The Politically Incorrect Guide” in the title. No one ever said I wouldn’t say something about delicate subjects. Today’s topic is one of those. Over the weekend, Lew Rockwell republished a piece by Jack Cashill from The American Thinker. The topic? Educated Leftist Females are destroying America. He calls them ELFs. Funny. This is not going to make any feminists …more

John C. Calhoun is often regarded as the American Hitler, so much so that both “conservatives” and progressives go out of their way to portray him as the supreme evil doer in American history. If it just wasn’t for that Calhoun, America would have been perfect! This belief is a component of both the “proposition nation myth” and the “righteous cause myth” of American history. …more

The idiotic neoconservative Max Boot recently penned a piece claiming that real America is in fact blue America. You know, drag queens and blue haired zoomers. He may not be wrong. This leads to an important questions: has America ever really been “conservative”? Louis Hartz argued that America could never claim a real conservative tradition. That may be true on the macro level, as an …more

In cast you missed it, President Brandon declared “MAGA Republicans” to be enemies of the State. Then he didn’t. The Democrats realized they stepped in it and quickly tried to pivot by arguing that “MAGA Republicans” were not evil, just MAGA policies. Except everyone knows that the speech was exactly what Democrats think. In fact, it was written by the doofus presidential historian John Meacham, …more