The Brion McClanahan Show

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com People often ask me about James K. Polk. Wasn't he one of the greatest presidents in American history? His reputation has certainly received a boost in the last decade, and if we use that as a yardstick, I was cutting edge. As an undergraduate twenty years ago, I thought Polk was a fantastic president and wrote several laudatory research papers on the man. Boy was I wrong. Polk is a 19th century neo-con and his policies had a detrimental effect on American government moving forward. Get all you need to know about James K. Polk in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The Constitution for the United States is not the only Constitution in the United States. There are fifty other constitutions that no one knows anything about. American constitutional history must involve not only a discussion about the "Constitution," but also the Articles of Confederation, the Confederate Constitution, and the several state constitutions. I cover the constitutions of the original thirteen states in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com This has become a trendy position recently. Mike Huckabee made news by suggesting so after the Senate blocked the repeal of Obamacare. I have been saying this for almost a decade, but whose counting? The 17th did much to undermine real federalism in America, but it was already on life support before that. Still, a listener wanted me to talk about this issue so why not. Repeal the 17th!

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The AHA has told all of us idiots in America how to think about Confederate monuments. The question is, who are the idiots? They released a statement on August 28 presuming to speak for the entire American historical profession. Well, I am part of that profession, and I don't agree. I take their statement apart in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Who was the first President of the United States? Seems like a simple question with a simple answer, but some people have made it more complicated than it needs to be. They insist that there were over a dozen presidents BEFORE George Washington was sworn into office in 1789 because these men presided over the Congress under the Articles of Confederation. I discuss this position in Episode 109 of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support You probably have heard this before. Secession is not legal because the Constitution does not expressly grant the states the power to leave the Union. I had some numbskull leave a "review" at Amazon of my 9 Presidents with this very critique. I couldn't resist the urge to take him down about one million notches. Plus, it provided a great opportunity to discuss the legality of secession.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com John Taylor of Caroline is truly one of the greatest Americans. I think so highly of Taylor that I included a chapter on him in my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers and he is featured in my forthcoming How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America. I thought it would be a good time to visit Taylor and explain why he is a contemporary figure, or at least should be. American government and politics would be far different if we listened to the great sage from Hazlewood.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com People often point to the 1960s as the decade that "screwed things up," and in many ways they are correct, but it wasn't until the 1990s that Americans witnessed a full expression of the 1960s cultural mentality. Pat Buchanan's 1992 "Culture Wars" speech was prophetic. He was, in many ways, 25 years ahead of his time, but the seeds were being sewn in the American academy and in pop culture for the emergence of a 1960s view of American society. Everything was conflict between various groups--race, class, gender--and the general anger and angst was on full display in the 1990s from grunge music to popular sit coms.

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support Inquiring listeners want to know: has the United States always had a "two party system" and is that system codified in the Constitution? The answer is no to both, though there have always been factions in American government. Our "national" focus on American politics precludes us from looking to state and local solutions to problems and also distorts our understanding of the American political system. I give you a history lesson on American parties and a structural look at why general government seems to create a "two party" climate.

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support Why were monuments and memorials built in the South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries? A better question would be why so many monuments and memorials were built across the entire United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Confederate memorials need to be viewed within the context of American--not just Southern--history at the time of their erection and dedication. Many of the most iconic American memorials were built and dedicated at this time, even in the North. Get your real history in Episode 104 of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://blamehamilton.com http://learntruehistory.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support American politics has devolved into emotivism. "I feel" has replaced "I think," particularly for the ideologues on the Left, the fascists, communists, and socialists. They thrive on emotion, which is why they pick issues that will elicit an emotional response. But that is not who we are. The people I know who support monuments and symbols--across the United States--do so because they have a tangible connection to those things. This is hearth and home, kith and kin. We don't tear down fences before asking why or who put the fence there and why it was important. Tradition matters, and we need to better express our interest in tradition.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Several people have asked me to respond to an Atlantic article about Robert E. Lee. I already did, over two years ago. Episode 102 republishes a talk I gave on Lee and the terrible book, Reading the Man by Elizabeth Brown Pryor, in January 2015, fully six months before the current pogrom on all things Southern began. Enjoy!

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Neo-conservatives can't decide why they hate Calhoun or the Southern tradition. Is it unwanted decentralization (secession) or unwanted centralization? In reality, the Southern tradition is just unwanted. The latest neo-conservative stooge to make a stupid claim about Calhoun drips from the pen of John Daniel Davidson at TheFederalist.com. Davidson contends that Calhoun's political philosophy is at the heart of the modern progressive, bureaucratic state and that Calhoun was the precursor to Marx. It would be laughable if it wasn't so stupid. I discuss Calhoun's Disquisition on Government and the latest attempted takedown of Calhoun in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com People are always asking me what they can do to help correct the biases of the mainstream academy and media. This podcast is for you, and it's two words: popular history. Most Americans get their history from documentaries, popular histories (meaning non-academic), and the Internet. You can do all three without working for a university. All it takes is a little marketing, initiative, good writing skills, and the desire to "interest the public intelligently in the past."

http://blamehamilton.com http://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com You've probably heard this before from a half-witted modern academic: "The only difference between the CSA Constitution and the USA Constitution was slavery." Right. No one thought about anything else, except they did. I discuss the Confederate Constitution and the difference between the two documents as part of the American constitutional tradition in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.