Backchannel: Insights on American Culture

Extracted from the Chronicles magazine December 2020 issue, we present an audio version of "Middle America's Road to Power," a feature article written by Chronices Associate Editor Pedro Gonzalez.

In this article, Gonzalez asserts that conventional conservatives today are like members of an oppressed proletariat defending the oligarchy and its bread and circuses. He believes the populist right must forge a revolutionary conservative movement indigestible to the current establishment.

Audio reading by John Howting for Backchannel. Chronicles magazine is a program of Charlemagne Institute.

A reading from the Chronicles Blog from May 26, 2021. Paul Gottfried's piece on why Critical Race Theory, a hateful and misguided ideology in its own right, has nothing to do with traditional Marxism.

Broadcast live on Friday, November 13, 2020. This week's Backchannel is a free discussion between Chronicles Editor Paul Gottfried and military historian and author Bill Lind on the topic, “What is Cultural Marxism.” Gottfried and Lind wrote complimentary essays in the November 2020 issue of Chronicles in which they debated the origins and nature of the ideology that animates the modern left, with Lind emphasizing its Marxist origins and Gottfried characterizing it as a revolution against the West’s traditional, Christian cultural underpinnings. The discussion will be moderated by Charlemagne Institute Chief Executive Devin Foley, and Gottfried and Lind will answer questions from livestream viewers. Dr. Paul Gottfried, Editor-in-Chief of Chronicles magazine, is Horace Raffensperger Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Elizabethtown College and author of Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt, The Strange Death of Marxism, and Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right. His latest books are The Vanishing Tradition: Perspectives on American Conservatism and Fascism: The Career of a Concept. William S. Lind is a military historian, a columnist for The American Conservative, and author of Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation Warfare, and Retroculture: Taking America Back.

Broadcast live on Wednesday, October 21, 2020. This week’s Backchannel features William Lind, Chronicles contributor, as he speaks about his recent piece "Fourth Generation War Comes to a Theater Near You," which is featured in the October 2020 issue of Chronicles magazine. Lind is joined in conversation by Edward Welsch, Executive Editor of Chronicles, and Annie Holmquist, Editor of Intellectual Takeout. As Americans embrace loyalty to their clan or ideology over the State, the State is losing legitimacy. The State's monopoly on war is dissipating as non-State actors fight in the streets. As Lind explains, this is Fourth Generation War. William S. Lind is a military historian, a columnist for The American Conservative, and author of Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation Warfare and Retroculture: Taking America Back.

Broadcast live on October 12, 2020, this week’s Backchannel podcast features C. Jay Engel, Chronicles contributor, as he speaks about his recent piece "Up From Libertarianism," which is featured in the October 2020 issue of Chronicles magazine. Libertarianism was a way forward for those disillusioned with America's two-party system, but it is now clear that the ideals of liberty have been subverted by the left. Only political power can preserve the cultural and ethnic roots of America. C. Jay Engel works as a strategic business advisor and writes from his home near the Sierra Nevadas of Northern California. He lives with his wife and their four homeschooled children.

Broadcast live on Wednesday, September 16, 2020. Author and professor Mark David Hall speaks on his recent Chronicles article "The 1620 Project," and is joined in conversation by Chronicles Editor-in-Chief Paul Gottfried and Charlemagne CEO Devin Foley. 400 years ago today, on September 16, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, carrying a group of English Separatists now known as the Pilgrims on their voyage to the New World. In the September 2020 issue, Chronicles magazine takes a deeper look at the influence of this pivotal event in American history. In stark contrast to the hyperbole and revisionist history of The New York Times' recent The 1619 Project, Professor Hall examines the influence these early settlers had on the American founding. Mark David Hall is the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics and Faculty Fellow in the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University. He is also associated faculty at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University and senior fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. He has written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books on religion and politics in America and is a nationally recognized expert on religious freedom. Author of the 2019 book Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth, Professor Hall has a truly illuminating perspective on the Pilgrims as we take this 400-year look back at their legacy.