Joseph Kelly on The Biggest Lie and America’s Fascist Roots

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. American fascism didn’t begin with Donald Trump, or even with the rise of fascism in Europe. Its roots reach deep into our own history. America’s road to fascism began with a big lie about who counts as fully human. That’s what historian Joseph Kelly reveals in his book, The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818–1915. Kelly traces a long struggle between two visions of the country. One rests on the Declaration’s promise of equality. The other claims that people aren’t equal, that white people are superior to Black people and therefore have the right to dominate them. We follow that ideology from the Missouri crisis through pseudoscientific racism, Indian removal, slavery and the violent overthrow of Reconstruction. Kelly explains how the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts, Jim Crow and The Birth of a Nation used fear, myth and racialized sexual panic to defend white rule. We also look at a road not taken, multiracial democracy and class-based political cooperation. Those possibilities were repeatedly attacked by elites who weaponized fears of replacement and Black political power. Kelly connects domestic white supremacy to American empire in Cuba and the Philippines. He argues that fascism is a corruption of democracy, built when dissent is silenced, violence is celebrated and allegiance to the tribe and its leader replaces truth. That history, he says, can help us understand the battle over democracy today. Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Love good coffee? Want to support Writer’s Voice? Head on over to Larry’s Coffee using this LINK, and you’ll earn $30 for the show! You might also like: Aran Shetterly on The Greensboro Massacre, Paul Kix on the fight to end Jim Crow Tags: Joseph Kelly, The Biggest Lie, American fascism, white supremacy, racism, slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, replacement theory, multiracial democracy Read The Transcript Joseph Kelly, THE BIGGEST LIE Key topics: The conflict between equality and white supremacy The Missouri crisis and the defense of slavery Pseudoscientific racism Andrew Jackson and Indian removal The destruction of Reconstruction The Ku Klux Klan and the Red Shirts Racial and sexual panic Ida B. Wells and the truth about lynching American imperialism in Cuba and the Philippines The Birth of a Nation Fascism, political lies and loyalty to the leader