Learning Real History From A Master Teacher

Dr. Brion McClanahan is an amazing teacher. A prolific author of many specialized books focusing upon American history, particularly of the Founding and Early National Periods up to the War for Southern Independence. His online McClanahan Academy offers over twenty courses on American History (most of which I have purchased and highly relish.)  Several times each week he provides extremely informative podcasts on contemporary and historical subjects in an engaging and personalized manner. Recently in reply to one of his listener/viewers he composed the one above on How to Teach Jacksonian  America.

I was amazed and astounded how similar his outline of how he taught this period was to how I did so, particularly with my AP U. S. History students in the late 1990s and early 2000s (before students became obsessively dependent on cell phones and the Internet. I prepared several brief summary handout articles on the principal figures of the period, John C. Calhoun: From Nationalism to Nullification, Nationalism: From Hamilton to Clay, Republicanism: Jefferson to Van Buren, and had students view specialized documentaries on Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Aaron Burr. I provided pre-Internet photocopied handouts from The Annals of America of the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification, Andrew Jackson’s Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, and the Reply to Jackson’s Proclamation. I also included Jackson’s Veto of the Re-chartering of the 2nd National Bank. As with the manner McClanahan does in his online courses, utilization and emphasis upon primary documents was the key. Years later I put together the articles below for LewRockwell.com incorporating some of these elements. Here are later versions of these articles:

Republicanism: From Jefferson to Van Buren

Who Rules America: Power Elite Analysis, the Deep State, and American History

I particularly want to emphasize the content from the second article which focuses upon this specific area of concern:

Who Rules America: Power Elite Analysis, the Deep State, and American History

Part Two

  1. Early American Historical Overview

Theme of Liberty Versus Power –  (Ivan Jankovic, The American Counter-Revolution in Favor of Liberty: How Americans Resisted Modern State, 1765–1850); The Country Party Versus Court Party: The Declaration of Independence and the Revolution (Bernard Bailyn, The Origins of American Politics; The Ideological Origins of the American RevolutionMurray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Volumes 1-4; Angelo M. Codevilla, The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About it); Luigi Marco Bassani, Chaining Down Leviathan: The American Dream of Self-Government 1776-1865; and Patrick Newman, Cronyism: Liberty versus Power in Early America, 1607–1849 .

  1. Counter-Revolution
    1. U.S. Constitution (Sheldon Richman, America’s Counter Revolution: The Constitution Revisited; Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Volume 5: The New Republic; John Taylor, New Views of the Constitution of the United States; Charles A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United StatesSaul Cornell, The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism & the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828What The Antifederalists Were For)
    2. Alexander Hamilton and the Plutocratic Federalists: “The Funding Fathers” (John McConaughy, Who Rules America: A Century of Invisible Government; Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution – and What It Means for America Today; Brion McClanahan, How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America)
    3. The Early Nationalist Period (Stanley Elkins & Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815Phillip H. Burch, Elites in American History: The Federalist Years to the Civil War)
    4. Republicanism: From Jefferson to Van Buren
  2. Jeffersonian Drive to Roll Back the Federalist Program and Rid America of its Powerful Ruling Elite (Lance Banning, The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology)
  3. Failure of Jefferson/Madison Regimes and the Rise of the Old Republicans or “Tertium Quids” (Norman K. Risjord, The Old Republicans: Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson)
    1. John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia (John Taylor, Tyranny Unmasked)
    2. John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia
    3. The Panic of 1819, James Monroe, and the “Era of Good Feelings
  4. Martin Van Buren and the Founding of the Democratic Party (Robert V. Remini, Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party)
    1. After Visiting his Hero Jefferson, Van Buren Prompted to Found the Democratic Party to Reinvigorate the Two Party System
    2. The Election of 1824 and “the Corrupt Bargain:” After the Defeat of William H. Crawford, Van Buren Puts His Organizing Skills to Winning the Presidency for Andrew Jackson (Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America)
    3. Ideological Focus of the Democratic Party
      1. Anti-Central Bank
      2. Hard Money: “Gold is the People’s Money”
      3. Free Trade and Anti-Monopoly
    4. The Twenty Four Year Plan
      1. Eight Years of Andrew Jackson of Tennessee
      2. Eight Years of Martin Van Buren of New York
      3. Eight Years of Thomas Hart (“Old Bullion”) Benton of Missouri
    5. The Rise of the Whig Party: Rebirth of the Hamiltonian Consolidationists
      1. Pro-Central Bank: Opposition to the Separation of Banking and State Proposed by Jackson and Van Buren – the Independent Sub-Treasury
      2. High Protective Tariff: Anti-Free Trade
      3. Corporate Welfare: The “Internal Improvements” System
    6. Civil War: Reconsolidation of the Yankee Mercantile Elite (Thomas DiLorenzo, The Real Lincoln; Joseph R. Stromberg, “The War for Southern Independence: A Radical Libertarian Perspective;” Murray N. Rothbard, “The Civil War and Its Legacy”)
      1. High Protective Tariffs
      2. Abraham Lincoln’s “Pro-Slavery” 13th Amendment
      3. Income Tax
      4. Conscription: Led to Widespread Anti-Draft Riots and Protests
      5. Paper Money: Greenbacks
      6. National Banking Act of 1863: Eliminated Competing Currencies
      7. Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus
      8. Mass Arrests of Opponents of Lincoln and the War in the North
      9. Reconstruction: Military Government and Occupation of the South
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10:55 am on October 20, 2021