books.
Nonsense on Stilts: The Gettysburg Address & Lincoln's Imaginary Nation
Now Available at Amazon and Shotwell Direct!
IN NONSENSE ON STILTS, Paul C. Graham takes the reader on a historical and philosophical quest to separate the lofty prose from the hard facts regarding the American founding as put forth by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address.
For Graham, the imaginary “nation” and its faux “mission” as articulated in Lincoln’s most famous address is the major source of today’s deadly division between the government and the real living people of America and we continue to revere it at our peril.
EXCERPTS :
“The question that [is] never raised … is whether or not the seductive words of this cunning linguist and master debater, Abraham Lincoln, were TRUE.”
“Does this thing we call the Federal Government have anything to do with the American Constitution of 1787? If not, who said they could change it? Who provided permission to allow judges, lawyers, and politicians to interpret our own law and twist it into a grotesque assemblage of implied and/or inferred powers…?
“Because there was never a nation conceived in the way described by Lincoln, or dedicated to any abstract proposition … there was no legal or moral justification for Lincoln’s invasion of the Southern States.”
“The country we thought we had has long ceased to exist if it ever did. The government—what Lincoln called the ‘National Authority’—what we have NOW—is fraudulent government deeply invested in the ‘nationalist myth’—an ‘indivisible nation’ with all of the markings of the post-French Revolutionary Nation-State.”
Now Available at Amazon and Shotwell Direct!
IN NONSENSE ON STILTS, Paul C. Graham takes the reader on a historical and philosophical quest to separate the lofty prose from the hard facts regarding the American founding as put forth by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address.
For Graham, the imaginary “nation” and its faux “mission” as articulated in Lincoln’s most famous address is the major source of today’s deadly division between the government and the real living people of America and we continue to revere it at our peril.
EXCERPTS :
“The question that [is] never raised … is whether or not the seductive words of this cunning linguist and master debater, Abraham Lincoln, were TRUE.”
“Does this thing we call the Federal Government have anything to do with the American Constitution of 1787? If not, who said they could change it? Who provided permission to allow judges, lawyers, and politicians to interpret our own law and twist it into a grotesque assemblage of implied and/or inferred powers…?
“Because there was never a nation conceived in the way described by Lincoln, or dedicated to any abstract proposition … there was no legal or moral justification for Lincoln’s invasion of the Southern States.”
“The country we thought we had has long ceased to exist if it ever did. The government—what Lincoln called the ‘National Authority’—what we have NOW—is fraudulent government deeply invested in the ‘nationalist myth’—an ‘indivisible nation’ with all of the markings of the post-French Revolutionary Nation-State.”
Confederaphobia: An American Epidemic
Columbia, SC: Shotwell Publishing, 2017
For 150 years Confederate monuments and other memorials dotted the American landscape. Few people objected. After all, a third of the American people are descended from Confederate soldiers and Congress has officially and legally declared Confederates to be “American veterans.”
That time has passed.
There is an epidemic of hate and fear sweeping the land; a wave of hostility and intolerance that shows no sign of slowing or stopping; its fury is directed at Southern symbols—flags, monuments, and other displays—in fact everything Southern now appears to be a target. Paul C. Graham has courageously examined this case of mass hysteria; a condition he has aptly dubbed “Confederaphobia.”
“It’s one thing,” writes Graham, “to acknowledge that the meaning of symbols is one of perspective. It’s quite another thing to have the meaning dictated by ideologues who are not participants in the cultural tradition . . . . Southern symbols mean to the Southerner exactly what they say that they do . . .speak for those people for whom Southern identity is a living reality.”
Southern people are growing weary of the ongoing demonization; of being bullied and harassed; and have begun to realize that Confederaphobia is not a matter of monuments, but a campaign to expunge their identity.
If you are a self-identified Southerner, you are a potential target!
It’s not too late to inoculate yourself from the dangerous effects of this disease, but this is only possible if you recognize the problem.
The problem is not Confederate flags, monuments, markers, belt-buckles, stickers, do-dads, knick-knacks, what-nots, or Dukes of Hazzard re-runs—the problem is Confederaphobia!
Columbia, SC: Shotwell Publishing, 2017
For 150 years Confederate monuments and other memorials dotted the American landscape. Few people objected. After all, a third of the American people are descended from Confederate soldiers and Congress has officially and legally declared Confederates to be “American veterans.”
That time has passed.
There is an epidemic of hate and fear sweeping the land; a wave of hostility and intolerance that shows no sign of slowing or stopping; its fury is directed at Southern symbols—flags, monuments, and other displays—in fact everything Southern now appears to be a target. Paul C. Graham has courageously examined this case of mass hysteria; a condition he has aptly dubbed “Confederaphobia.”
“It’s one thing,” writes Graham, “to acknowledge that the meaning of symbols is one of perspective. It’s quite another thing to have the meaning dictated by ideologues who are not participants in the cultural tradition . . . . Southern symbols mean to the Southerner exactly what they say that they do . . .speak for those people for whom Southern identity is a living reality.”
Southern people are growing weary of the ongoing demonization; of being bullied and harassed; and have begun to realize that Confederaphobia is not a matter of monuments, but a campaign to expunge their identity.
If you are a self-identified Southerner, you are a potential target!
It’s not too late to inoculate yourself from the dangerous effects of this disease, but this is only possible if you recognize the problem.
The problem is not Confederate flags, monuments, markers, belt-buckles, stickers, do-dads, knick-knacks, what-nots, or Dukes of Hazzard re-runs—the problem is Confederaphobia!
Editor
When the Yankees Come: Former Carolina Slaves Remember Sherman's March FROM the Sea
Edited and Introduced by yours truly.
Columbia, SC: Shotwell Publishing, 2021
Description:
Many Americans believe that the coming of the blue soldiers of the North, emissaries of emancipation, was a joyful event for African Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How do we know this?
Because we have their recorded accounts.
Ending slavery, contrary to self-congratulatory American myth, was not a righteous crusade. It was a by-product of a brutal war of conquest and invasion—a total war against civilians in which black Southerners suffered as much if not more than whites. The devastation of the people’s resources in large areas of the South left African Americans as well as Southern whites suffering and sometimes starving. For many, it was an experience of fear, disruption of life, and cruel uncertainty about their future, to which the liberators had given no thought.
The material gathered by Paul C. Graham makes this clear. Of late, Americans have had a taste for history by theory: The War Between the States was “about” slavery. A better understanding comes from seeing what the people who were there have to say about it. Such an approach to history as human experience can be both informative and enlightening.
*Note: This is an updated and expanded edition which includes entries from both the North Carolina and South Carolina Slave narratives. The title of both editions are the same. The subtitle, however, of the first version of this book, which only contained entries from the SC Narratives only, was Former South Carolina Slaves Remember Sherman's Invasion (2016).
Edited and Introduced by yours truly.
Columbia, SC: Shotwell Publishing, 2021
Description:
Many Americans believe that the coming of the blue soldiers of the North, emissaries of emancipation, was a joyful event for African Americans. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How do we know this?
Because we have their recorded accounts.
Ending slavery, contrary to self-congratulatory American myth, was not a righteous crusade. It was a by-product of a brutal war of conquest and invasion—a total war against civilians in which black Southerners suffered as much if not more than whites. The devastation of the people’s resources in large areas of the South left African Americans as well as Southern whites suffering and sometimes starving. For many, it was an experience of fear, disruption of life, and cruel uncertainty about their future, to which the liberators had given no thought.
The material gathered by Paul C. Graham makes this clear. Of late, Americans have had a taste for history by theory: The War Between the States was “about” slavery. A better understanding comes from seeing what the people who were there have to say about it. Such an approach to history as human experience can be both informative and enlightening.
*Note: This is an updated and expanded edition which includes entries from both the North Carolina and South Carolina Slave narratives. The title of both editions are the same. The subtitle, however, of the first version of this book, which only contained entries from the SC Narratives only, was Former South Carolina Slaves Remember Sherman's Invasion (2016).
Contributor
Exploring the Southern Tradition
20 Abbeville Institute Scholars
McClellanville, SC: Abbeville Institute Press, 2019.
WHAT WE HAVE KNOWN as “the South” has been for four centuries a major part of the American identity. This is true whether measured by population, territory, history, or culture, high and folk. In 2002 a group of scholars led by Donald Livingston founded the Abbeville Institute to combat intellectually the ongoing campaign to eliminate the South from “America,” a campaign now dominant in public discourse. Their intent was to defend, explore, and apply all that “is true and valuable in the Southern tradition,” which they believe has a permanent and constructive role for the present and the future.
In pursuit of its mission The Institute has produced public programs across the land and has conducted 17 Summer Schools for college students, many of whom have gone on to higher degrees.
The Institute publishes five articles a week, a weekly podcast, and houses an online library of about 1000 lectures and articles covering a variety of aspects of Southern history and culture—all of which are available online at no cost!
This volume contains only a small representative sample of subjects addressed by the Abbeville Institute and of the distinguished body of thinkers who have participated. As an introductory volume, we invite you to join with the Abbeville Institute as they continue to explore what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition.
Contributors: David Aiken, Boyd D. Cathey, William Cawthon, Tom Daniel, John Devanny, Richard Gamble, Paul Gottfried, Paul C. Graham, Ben “Cooter” Jones, Thomas H. Landess, Donald Livingston, Brion McClanahan, Michael Martin, James Rutledge Roesch, Carey Roberts, Samuel C. Smith, Karen Stokes, Ryan Walters, Clyde N. Wilson, and Aaron Wolf
20 Abbeville Institute Scholars
McClellanville, SC: Abbeville Institute Press, 2019.
WHAT WE HAVE KNOWN as “the South” has been for four centuries a major part of the American identity. This is true whether measured by population, territory, history, or culture, high and folk. In 2002 a group of scholars led by Donald Livingston founded the Abbeville Institute to combat intellectually the ongoing campaign to eliminate the South from “America,” a campaign now dominant in public discourse. Their intent was to defend, explore, and apply all that “is true and valuable in the Southern tradition,” which they believe has a permanent and constructive role for the present and the future.
In pursuit of its mission The Institute has produced public programs across the land and has conducted 17 Summer Schools for college students, many of whom have gone on to higher degrees.
The Institute publishes five articles a week, a weekly podcast, and houses an online library of about 1000 lectures and articles covering a variety of aspects of Southern history and culture—all of which are available online at no cost!
This volume contains only a small representative sample of subjects addressed by the Abbeville Institute and of the distinguished body of thinkers who have participated. As an introductory volume, we invite you to join with the Abbeville Institute as they continue to explore what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition.
Contributors: David Aiken, Boyd D. Cathey, William Cawthon, Tom Daniel, John Devanny, Richard Gamble, Paul Gottfried, Paul C. Graham, Ben “Cooter” Jones, Thomas H. Landess, Donald Livingston, Brion McClanahan, Michael Martin, James Rutledge Roesch, Carey Roberts, Samuel C. Smith, Karen Stokes, Ryan Walters, Clyde N. Wilson, and Aaron Wolf
American History for Home Schools, 1607-1885 by 16 Members of the Society of Independent Southern Historians
Charlotte, NC: Society of Independent Southern Historians, 2018.
Sixteen historians, all members of The Society of Independent Southern Historians, have come together to write this truthful history of America specifically for Home Schooled students. Herein is a history that is truthful, concise, yet comprehensive, written especially for students of middle school and high school age and for the parents who provide guidance through the home school educational approach.
The 40 student lessons in this book present 278 years of our history: from the founding of Jamestown, Virginia Colony to the restoration of a healthy balance in American politics as evidenced by the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1885. Each lesson (or chapter) includes suggestions for student discussion and lists a few resources for further study. The history of how Patriots of the Southern Colonies were instrumental in winning our American Revolution and creating our original limited-power federal government is covered. The history of how pioneers of the Southern Culture spearheaded the western migration to the Mississippi and beyond is covered. Our Civil War, also known as The War Between the States, was the major event in those 278 years of our history. For that reason, the political sectionalism that tore the country apart is presented in detail. The war itself is covered, but only one chapter reviews major battles. The subsequent Political Reconstruction is covered in detail, with ample explanation of how the principle of State Rights, previously treasured in both the North and the South, was subjugated under a far more powerful Federal Government following the conquest of the Confederate States.
Note: This book reworks and replaces Understanding the War Between the States, 2015.
Charlotte, NC: Society of Independent Southern Historians, 2018.
Sixteen historians, all members of The Society of Independent Southern Historians, have come together to write this truthful history of America specifically for Home Schooled students. Herein is a history that is truthful, concise, yet comprehensive, written especially for students of middle school and high school age and for the parents who provide guidance through the home school educational approach.
The 40 student lessons in this book present 278 years of our history: from the founding of Jamestown, Virginia Colony to the restoration of a healthy balance in American politics as evidenced by the election of Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1885. Each lesson (or chapter) includes suggestions for student discussion and lists a few resources for further study. The history of how Patriots of the Southern Colonies were instrumental in winning our American Revolution and creating our original limited-power federal government is covered. The history of how pioneers of the Southern Culture spearheaded the western migration to the Mississippi and beyond is covered. Our Civil War, also known as The War Between the States, was the major event in those 278 years of our history. For that reason, the political sectionalism that tore the country apart is presented in detail. The war itself is covered, but only one chapter reviews major battles. The subsequent Political Reconstruction is covered in detail, with ample explanation of how the principle of State Rights, previously treasured in both the North and the South, was subjugated under a far more powerful Federal Government following the conquest of the Confederate States.
Note: This book reworks and replaces Understanding the War Between the States, 2015.