The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915

Podcast: NBN Book of the Day · Marshall Poe

Opublikowano: 2026-10-08

When American fascists suddenly goose-stepped down Main Street in the 1930s, fascism was seen by the rest of the country as a terrifying and radical new European import. It was not. It didn’t come from abroad. Nor was it new or radical. The seed of American fascism was planted by elite southern planters who insisted that slavery need not be addressed in the Constitution because it would soon die out on its own. In The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915 ( Bloomsbury, 2026), Joseph Kelly chronicles fascism’s deep roots in the antebellum South; its codificat...