Jarrett Stepman has a new
book out from Regnery titled The War on History: The
Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.
This
is a good and timely topic, and I was excited to read what Stepman had to say.
The book is a nice, breezy read–and a
worthwhile purchase–and he takes the Left to task on several issues, most
importantly on Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson.
But he could have punched harder.
I have talked a lot about the
destruction of Western Civilization and in particular the assault on all things
Southern and Confederate on both my show and over at the Abbeville
Institute’s website and podcast–a great place to
get more of me each week.
Stepman
missed an opportunity to take it to the enemy. His chapter on “The War for
Union” begins by discussing Robert E. Lee and ends with a defense of Abraham
Lincoln?
Yes,
because Lincoln is clearly under assault in America, where again?
Malcolm
X thought Lincoln “did more to deceive Negroes and to make the race problem in
this country than any man in history.”
I
guess that counts, but Stepman does not mention this. And of course X said that
to Robert Penn Warren in the 1960s.
Stepman does cite Harry Jaffa
and Allen Guelzo, though.
Who could pick two more strident defenders of all things Southern?
This is the problem with modern
“conservatism.” They fall all over themselves trying to appeal to the Left by
parroting the “proposition nation” fallacy of the founding.
Stepman
falls into that trap. If the War was about slavery and nothing else, as Stepman
and the neoconservatives contend, then how is the Left wrong to want to
eradicate that part of American memory?
They
don’t see that they are digging their own intellectual graves.
I
review Stepman’s book in Episode 263 of The Brion McClanahan Show.
Or
Speaking of the war on
history, Donald Trump supposedly stepped in it again when he insisted that
Italy and the United States “are bound together by a shared cultural and
political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome.”
The
Twitter historian brigade jumped on the chance to let Trump have it for his
historical ignorance, that is until these nimrods woke up.
I, of course, have spoken twice
about Roman influence on
American history on my show and what that history means for the future of the
United States. Just goes to show that listening to me puts you on the cutting
edge.
I do all of this free of charge, so if you would like to help, consider
supporting the show. I appreciate anything you want to send my way.
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Brion
McClanahan [send him mail] holds a Ph.D in American
History from the University of South Carolina. His newest book is How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America.
Copyright © 2019 Brion McClanahan