The Revenge of the Yankees, by Michael Lind
How Social Gospel became Social Justice
In the last decades of Murray Rothbard’s life, he developed an important interpretative framework in understanding American history. This was prodded on by his careful study of the emerging “new political history” which was reinterpreting the dynamics of the ebb and flow of ethnocultural and ethnoreligious groups. This bold synthesis became the central focus of some of his greatest scholarly endeavors, particularly when it came to understanding progressivism as a secularized version of this postmillennial religious zeal. That seminal ethnocultural and ideological struggle continues unabated today as Michael Lind’s above article outlines, and as historian Clyde Wilson detailed earlier in his brilliant essay (later amplified into a book), The Yankee Problem in America.
After viewing Dr. Brion McClanahan‘s excellent online college level courses on The War for Southern Independence and US History from 1865, I am even more convinced than ever that the key to unlocking an understanding of the dynamic of American history, from colonization to the present, is grasping the tremendous impact of the conflicts and contributions the various ethnocultural and ethnoreligious groups have made on these shores. This is a subject I first began intensely studying over forty years ago in 1978 due to the pioneering work in this area by Murray N. Rothbard. This is the Rosetta Stone that deciphers and explains it all.
Younger readers need to be critically aware of what they undoubtedly consider “ancient history” in shaping the world in which we all reside. Power elite analysis is one crucial tool in discovering this hidden history where the “underworld” of organized crime intersects with the “upperworld” of the elite establishment in the Deep State. As a preliminary analysis I highly recommend Kirkpatrick Sales’ New York Review of Books “The World Behind Watergate,” and Jeff Gerth’s Penthouse “Richard M. Nixon and Organized Crime,” in presenting an anti-court history textbook account of a pivotal period. (The Kohn and another Gerth article struck their CIA/mobster targets too precisely and were subject to post-publication litigation in revenge.)
Here are authoritative volumes which present the essential backstory. I could list many others:
Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America;
The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, And The Triumph Of Anglo-America;
Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America’s Millennial Role;
The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism;
America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation;
The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics 1850-1900; and
The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies From Dallas to Watergate;
The place to begin with however, is Rothbard’s seminal book, The Progressive Era.
And here are seven crucial articles on this important subject:
- Who Rules America: Power Elite Analysis, the Deep State, and American History— Charles Burris article
- “Let the People See”: Reflections on Ethnoreligious Forces in American Politics — Joel H. Silbey article
- Religion, Politics, and the American Polity: A Dynamic View of Relationships — Paul Kleppner article
- Religion, Morality, and American Politics — Richard Jensen article
- The Transformation of the American Party System — Murray N. Rothbard article
- The Progressive Era and the Family –– Murray N. Rothbard article
- The Origins of the Welfare State in America — Murray N. Rothbard article
