The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

1. Themes and Lessons from Colonial America

U.S. History

09/27/2006Mises Media
Fischer’s book Albion’s Seed described four British folkways into the colonies. The four were Puritans to New England, aristocrats to Virginia, Quakers to Pennsylvania, and borderland immigrants to Appalachian backcountry.
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2. The Constitution: Four Disputed Clauses

U.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

10/04/2006Mises Media
As of 1790, all original thirteen colonies had ratified the Constitution. Four clauses have caused great trouble ever since: The War Powers Clause; The Commerce Clause; The Necessary and Proper Clause; and, The General Welfare Clause.
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3. The Principles of '98

U.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

10/11/2006Mises Media
1798 was an important year. The Principles of ’98 influenced all of American history. The Alien and Sedition Acts and the Kentucky Resolutions revealed these principles.
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4. Lysander Spooner and Other Antebellum Radicalism

U.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

10/18/2006Mises Media
Lysander Spooner in the antebellum period has been overlooked. He was a radical abolitionist lawyer. He wrote The Unconstitutionality of Slavery . William Lloyd Garrison felt the Constitution was a bloody pro-slavery compact.
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5. Secession and the American Experience

Big GovernmentMedia and CultureU.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

10/25/2006Mises Media
States had the right to secede. The War Between the States was not launched to free slaves. Lincoln believed that whites were superior and favored the deportation of freed slaves. The South was for free trade; the North wanted protectionism.
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6. Secession and War

U.S. HistoryWar and Foreign PolicyPolitical Theory

11/01/2006Mises Media
Secession is a progressive, not a reactionary force. It is civilized. Jefferson Davis argued that because secession is not mentioned in the Constitution it is retained by the states under the Tenth Amendment. Thomas Jefferson said that the time for separation had not yet come.
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7. Reconstruction

U.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

11/08/2006Mises Media
Reconstruction is the readmission of the Southern states to the Union. Lincoln decided that ten percent of the eligible voters in 1860 had to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. Andrew Johnson, after Lincoln, added that wealthy Southern Planters had to beg for pardons. The Southern states were...
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8. Myths and Facts About Big Business

U.S. EconomyCapital and Interest TheoryProduction Theory

11/16/2006Mises Media
Rockefeller, Carnegie, Dow, Hill, and other great American businessmen did more for America than all the big-government programs combined. These men were market entrepreneurs, not political ones.
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9. The 1920s

U.S. EconomyU.S. History

02/01/2007Mises Media
In the 1920s Presidents Harding and Coolidge never got close to the poll favorites of Washington, Lincoln and FDR when ranked, because they killed fewer, taxed less, made their administrations almost invisible, and sought no wealth or glory.
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10. The Economics of the New Deal and World War II

U.S. EconomyU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

02/21/2007Mises Media
While many Americans were hungry and destitute, FDR ordered the slaughter of six million pigs and the destruction of ten million acres of cotton. Public-sector jobs created by the New Deal displaced or destroyed private-sector jobs. World War II didn’t end the Great Depression; a return to free-...
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