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The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915
"Kelly tells this story with vivid immediacy."-ADAM HOCHSCHILD
"A sweeping and much needed work of history."-GREG GRANDIN
An eye-opening work of narrative history tracing the roots of American fascism back to the Antebellum South.
Named a "Best of July" by Publishers Lunch, Lit Hub, Book Culture, and the Orange County Register
When American fascists suddenly goosestepped 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, Joseph Kelly chronicles fascism's deep roots in the antebellum South; its codification under Jim Crow; and, then, after the Spanish American War, its ascendency in the form of Anglo-Saxon nationalism, proposing that the nation belongs to a master-race-the original lie of American fascism. In this dark hour of American history, Kelly's gripping story reminds us that the monied elite have always exceled at deploying disinformation to bias and inflame the masses, and that there have always been courageous patriots helping us to fight our way out of darkness toward the light.
"A sweeping and much needed work of history."-GREG GRANDIN
An eye-opening work of narrative history tracing the roots of American fascism back to the Antebellum South.
Named a "Best of July" by Publishers Lunch, Lit Hub, Book Culture, and the Orange County Register
When American fascists suddenly goosestepped 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, Joseph Kelly chronicles fascism's deep roots in the antebellum South; its codification under Jim Crow; and, then, after the Spanish American War, its ascendency in the form of Anglo-Saxon nationalism, proposing that the nation belongs to a master-race-the original lie of American fascism. In this dark hour of American history, Kelly's gripping story reminds us that the monied elite have always exceled at deploying disinformation to bias and inflame the masses, and that there have always been courageous patriots helping us to fight our way out of darkness toward the light.
400 pages, Hardcover
Published July 21, 2026
About the author
Joseph Kelly
67 books10 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Or An Aristocrat’s History of the United States.
This book is a historical retelling treating fascism as a formula that arose out of, is equivalent to, or even was defined by, American history, and more particularly the history of the treatment of Black people in the United States. In particular, the author looks at the notion of herrenvolk democracy, a description of apartheid states where the disenfranchisement of some groups works along with the liberation of others. In this form of government, the discrimination is not bug but feature. This maps well with the southern U.S., most notably during the post-Reconstruction period.
The book works as a sort of counterfactual. Descriptions of fascism treat it as a 20th century creation, having historical analogs (and itself requiring a sort of malignant nostalgia) but built from Nationalism and technology. This book plays with it as realized much earlier. Racism and racialized government is more calculated than mere bigotry here to advance the purposes of the upper class, or a trench of it.
The writing is strong in a compositional, creative non-fiction sense of building up a historical narrative. The individual deep dives into aspects of history are great, particularly the discussion of Thomas Dixon Jr., author of the book (The Clansman) that would become the movie Birth of A Nation. There is an odd parallel to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle here, where it feels like, to paraphrase Sinclair, Dixon aimed for the heart and hit the gonads. Unfortunately, the strength of the writing can work against the thesis to the book. I ended up being thrilled by the reading, but pausing to not see how it worked for the book as a whole. There is a sort of odd twist where the author makes the historically traceable decisions to end up in an unequal racist society so tactile that it frustrates the thesis. Looking at all the exits that the nation could have taken from a racist structure, that so many treated as a foregone conclusion, ends up more a story about how Not Racist people were. I did feel some Gell-Mann at some of the science-y, specifically around eugenics, which has become something of a hobby for me*. There were wobbly descriptions of things, accurate but disingenuously framed, that make me a wary about some of the other text. None of it is sufficient to derail the book, but it bothered me.
The ugly bit is much the same as Chain of Ideas. History writing is not Scooby-Doo, we do not get to rip off the mask of social ossification to reveal the Capitalism underneath for the oligarchs to say that they would have gotten away with it, if not for those leftist historians, as the people start singing. I do not mean to overstate the overstatement here. There is evidence, some quite dramatic and visual evidence in this book, of the ways that racism and nationalism and imperialism is meant to plaster over economic subjugation and make people feel good despite feeling bad. But it bleeds with a sense that surely, it is mere ignorance at work. Surely, people are just not aware of the work of racism in preventing labor from rising up. Surely, this next sentence must be the one that will cause people to experience a class consciousness. Surely this this sentence will strike fear into the elites. Or this next one. Or this next one.
My thanks to the author, Joseph Kelly, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Bloomsbury USA, for making the ARC available to me.
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* - Author's note: do not put this in your Hinge profile.
This book is a historical retelling treating fascism as a formula that arose out of, is equivalent to, or even was defined by, American history, and more particularly the history of the treatment of Black people in the United States. In particular, the author looks at the notion of herrenvolk democracy, a description of apartheid states where the disenfranchisement of some groups works along with the liberation of others. In this form of government, the discrimination is not bug but feature. This maps well with the southern U.S., most notably during the post-Reconstruction period.
The book works as a sort of counterfactual. Descriptions of fascism treat it as a 20th century creation, having historical analogs (and itself requiring a sort of malignant nostalgia) but built from Nationalism and technology. This book plays with it as realized much earlier. Racism and racialized government is more calculated than mere bigotry here to advance the purposes of the upper class, or a trench of it.
The writing is strong in a compositional, creative non-fiction sense of building up a historical narrative. The individual deep dives into aspects of history are great, particularly the discussion of Thomas Dixon Jr., author of the book (The Clansman) that would become the movie Birth of A Nation. There is an odd parallel to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle here, where it feels like, to paraphrase Sinclair, Dixon aimed for the heart and hit the gonads. Unfortunately, the strength of the writing can work against the thesis to the book. I ended up being thrilled by the reading, but pausing to not see how it worked for the book as a whole. There is a sort of odd twist where the author makes the historically traceable decisions to end up in an unequal racist society so tactile that it frustrates the thesis. Looking at all the exits that the nation could have taken from a racist structure, that so many treated as a foregone conclusion, ends up more a story about how Not Racist people were. I did feel some Gell-Mann at some of the science-y, specifically around eugenics, which has become something of a hobby for me*. There were wobbly descriptions of things, accurate but disingenuously framed, that make me a wary about some of the other text. None of it is sufficient to derail the book, but it bothered me.
The ugly bit is much the same as Chain of Ideas. History writing is not Scooby-Doo, we do not get to rip off the mask of social ossification to reveal the Capitalism underneath for the oligarchs to say that they would have gotten away with it, if not for those leftist historians, as the people start singing. I do not mean to overstate the overstatement here. There is evidence, some quite dramatic and visual evidence in this book, of the ways that racism and nationalism and imperialism is meant to plaster over economic subjugation and make people feel good despite feeling bad. But it bleeds with a sense that surely, it is mere ignorance at work. Surely, people are just not aware of the work of racism in preventing labor from rising up. Surely, this next sentence must be the one that will cause people to experience a class consciousness. Surely this this sentence will strike fear into the elites. Or this next one. Or this next one.
My thanks to the author, Joseph Kelly, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Bloomsbury USA, for making the ARC available to me.
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* - Author's note: do not put this in your Hinge profile.
October 16, 2026
A gentleman's 1.5 stars after grokking it on a library shelf.
First, racism, even modern, conscious deliberate racism, is NOT fascism. Hume and Locke were both conscious, deliberate racists and clearly not fascists.
Second, I don't fully agree with animus some people have toward "presentism," but I will give concerns about it a passing nod.
Third, this turd-polishes Teddy Roosevelt's racism. Brownsville 1906 isn't even mentioned.
Fourth, imperialism is also not fascism. Disraeli was an ardent imperialist, but not a fascist.
Fifth, pre-1860, at least, there really wasn't "organized labor" in the South for something like fascism as anti-labor to exist. AFTER the Civil War, if you want to call Benjamin Harrison a fascist, fire away. But that was against striking workers in the North.
Sixth, I halfway suspect "fascism" is used as clickbait in and for the current political environment.
Seventh, for anybody with a serious knowledge of this era, there's really not anything new here, which makes me further think of point the sixth. And, with the high level of its average rating right now, it's apparently working.
First, racism, even modern, conscious deliberate racism, is NOT fascism. Hume and Locke were both conscious, deliberate racists and clearly not fascists.
Second, I don't fully agree with animus some people have toward "presentism," but I will give concerns about it a passing nod.
Third, this turd-polishes Teddy Roosevelt's racism. Brownsville 1906 isn't even mentioned.
Fourth, imperialism is also not fascism. Disraeli was an ardent imperialist, but not a fascist.
Fifth, pre-1860, at least, there really wasn't "organized labor" in the South for something like fascism as anti-labor to exist. AFTER the Civil War, if you want to call Benjamin Harrison a fascist, fire away. But that was against striking workers in the North.
Sixth, I halfway suspect "fascism" is used as clickbait in and for the current political environment.
Seventh, for anybody with a serious knowledge of this era, there's really not anything new here, which makes me further think of point the sixth. And, with the high level of its average rating right now, it's apparently working.
October 31, 2026
I wasn’t entirely convinced by Kelly’s thesis—essentially that America midwifed fascism by developing the intellectual underpinnings for the idea of human inequality—but still found this a really fascinating read that highlights the tragedy of how many Americans almost got it and then went in the opposite direction entirely
October 1, 2026
The deep dive into the history of racism and caste within the South was very interesting. I found it bizarre that so much was ignored throughout history classes both in high school and college. Kelly does a good job at explaining and interpreting the thought process and struggle both southern blacks and whites faced before during and after the civil war.
September 5, 2026
Interesting thesis but weak execution. I would imagine that anyone interested in this book is already aware of how racism prevailed in the South, therefore Kelly offers no new or nuanced insights.
Those who may be interested in this book would be better off reading Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson and Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. However, if you are not already educated on the relationship between the Antebellum South and our current political climate, then perhaps this would be a good introduction.
Those who may be interested in this book would be better off reading Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson and Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. However, if you are not already educated on the relationship between the Antebellum South and our current political climate, then perhaps this would be a good introduction.
August 15, 2026
For the history of slavery, civil war, reconstruction, and post-reconstruction this book deserves five stars. I felt like my high school really glossed over the post-Civil War era and now I understand why: it’s horrifying. Kelly does a really great job drawing out the entrenched racist attitudes and culture of privileged white southerners (and northerners). I was shocked by how similar some of these historical racists sound to the extreme right wing today. The only reason this does not deserve four stars in my opinion is I wanted at least one chapter drawing parallels between fascism today in the U.S. and how it developed from this era.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Joseph Kelly argues that “fascism is a native weed, a homegrown American phenomenon”.
In The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, Kelly puts forward the argument that white nationalism is the titular biggest lie in American history, and that its roots are based in a fringe group of wealthy elite slave owners who cultivated an “us vs them” mentality.
Most of the history covered in The Biggest Lie was skipped over, barely mentioned, or minimized in school. This is the real story of this county, of American chattel slavery, Jim Crow and “separate-but-equal”, our early wars both at home and abroad, Native American treaties made and broken.
An example: Andrew Jackson betrayed the native population through the articles of capitulation in 1815, which paved the way for the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which paved the way for the eventual “Trail of Tears”. This one example in a greater pattern of xenophobia in the infancy of our nation depicts that the American elite and a not-insignificant percentage of the populace has historically trended towards white supremacy and ethno-nationalism.
“White Americans coveted their neighbor’s “vineyard” and had the power to take it. Jackson might dress up Indian removal as a way of preserving tribal sovereignty, but Evarts saw the truth. “No sophistry,” he wrote, “no rationalization ‘can elude [God's] scrutiny.’”
The Biggest Lie covers events not widely taught - one such being the American-Filipino war - and underscores that America has always had a predilection for fascism and authoritarianism, especially when it comes to colonizing and the “white man’s burden” to so-called “third-world countries”.
“Americans have never really faced up to the truth about the Filipino-American War. For a long time, it was erased from American history. You can understand why. When you look into it, the American empire was not a pretty thing.”
The Biggest Lie provides an excellent overview of the history of yellow journalism, robber barons, and their historical prevalence to the modern social media propaganda machine and their obvious manipulation by the corporate elite aids the reader in identifying and understanding how modern America ended up with mass media conglomerates that control and disseminate misinformation and blatant propaganda. The messaging in both eras is almost exactly the same.
The Biggest Lie answers the question regarding fascism: “can it happen here?” -- It already has, and we exported it to the world. It’s only natural that the weed is growing again in its native habitat. However, Americans have also always attempted to pull this weed, and Kelly’s argument includes good people engaging in acts for the greater good and that echoes into the future.
“Progress toward democracy, [W.E.B. Du Bois] thought, was not a “sudden assault but a long siege”
There is so much more I could have said about this book and indeed there were about ten paragraphs that I cut from this review for the sake of brevity. This work is more important than ever in the current political climate and compiling all of this information in one place will be a boon for historians and those wishing to understand how we got where we are.
My sincere and humble thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, and Joseph Kelly for providing a digital ARC. The Biggest Lie will be available July 21, 2026.
In The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, Kelly puts forward the argument that white nationalism is the titular biggest lie in American history, and that its roots are based in a fringe group of wealthy elite slave owners who cultivated an “us vs them” mentality.
Most of the history covered in The Biggest Lie was skipped over, barely mentioned, or minimized in school. This is the real story of this county, of American chattel slavery, Jim Crow and “separate-but-equal”, our early wars both at home and abroad, Native American treaties made and broken.
An example: Andrew Jackson betrayed the native population through the articles of capitulation in 1815, which paved the way for the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which paved the way for the eventual “Trail of Tears”. This one example in a greater pattern of xenophobia in the infancy of our nation depicts that the American elite and a not-insignificant percentage of the populace has historically trended towards white supremacy and ethno-nationalism.
“White Americans coveted their neighbor’s “vineyard” and had the power to take it. Jackson might dress up Indian removal as a way of preserving tribal sovereignty, but Evarts saw the truth. “No sophistry,” he wrote, “no rationalization ‘can elude [God's] scrutiny.’”
The Biggest Lie covers events not widely taught - one such being the American-Filipino war - and underscores that America has always had a predilection for fascism and authoritarianism, especially when it comes to colonizing and the “white man’s burden” to so-called “third-world countries”.
“Americans have never really faced up to the truth about the Filipino-American War. For a long time, it was erased from American history. You can understand why. When you look into it, the American empire was not a pretty thing.”
The Biggest Lie provides an excellent overview of the history of yellow journalism, robber barons, and their historical prevalence to the modern social media propaganda machine and their obvious manipulation by the corporate elite aids the reader in identifying and understanding how modern America ended up with mass media conglomerates that control and disseminate misinformation and blatant propaganda. The messaging in both eras is almost exactly the same.
The Biggest Lie answers the question regarding fascism: “can it happen here?” -- It already has, and we exported it to the world. It’s only natural that the weed is growing again in its native habitat. However, Americans have also always attempted to pull this weed, and Kelly’s argument includes good people engaging in acts for the greater good and that echoes into the future.
“Progress toward democracy, [W.E.B. Du Bois] thought, was not a “sudden assault but a long siege”
There is so much more I could have said about this book and indeed there were about ten paragraphs that I cut from this review for the sake of brevity. This work is more important than ever in the current political climate and compiling all of this information in one place will be a boon for historians and those wishing to understand how we got where we are.
My sincere and humble thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, and Joseph Kelly for providing a digital ARC. The Biggest Lie will be available July 21, 2026.
October 13, 2026
This book interweaves threads of the emergence of scientific racism; the ever more elaborate, contorted and evil fantasies of (Anglo Saxon) white supremacy, southern "victimization," and the imagined sexual violence of Black men (the emergence of the KKK and Thomas Dixon's Birth of a Nation); and the anti-immigrant sentiment and suppression of labor by capital (rich white northern progressives) into Jim Crow, which is American fascism. Kelly does a nice job conveying the complexities of some people, like Teddy Roosevelt, but doesn't effectively engage with others, like Thomas Jefferson or even Thomas Dixon. I particularly liked the intermittent focus on Black intellectuals like Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. Dubois, who laid the ground work for the civil rights era with honor, dignity, and deep common sense. I was deep in the section about Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow violence and subjugation being justified by the lie that Black men will commit sexual violence against white women and the creation of fraternities at elite universities when the Cornell story of white men broke. So, overall this provides a very timely chronicle of the emergence of the language and ideas currently espoused by MAGA politicians and techno-oligarchs that structure the political violence targeted at immigrants, transpeople, and women today. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½⭐️
November 8, 2026
worthwhile read, delving into the nexus of invented racial constructs, exploitation of labor, nativism, and more during this hundred year period preceding the rise of fascism in Italy, Germany, etc. The thesis suggests an ongoing interplay in which Italy and Germany ultimately borrowed ideas from American practices of caste and concentration camps, and then (some) Americans borrowed back more white supremacist ideas, and that tracks. even if the ground covered in the book isn’t exactly novel, it’s an important exploration of the variables that can certainly lead to fascist ideology and practices.
August 29, 2026
I agree with the more positive reviews of this book. It's deep dive into some aspects of the White Supremacy argument were detailed in a manner that was enlightening. I felt the book was well written and followed a logical flow of looking more deeply into what fascism really is,ie. suppression of one group over another, without basis in fact or intelligence.
Borrowed from the Berkley Public Library in Berkley, MI.
Borrowed from the Berkley Public Library in Berkley, MI.
August 12, 2026
Pretty good. Kelly focuses a lot on literature and racism in American history, focusing on nativism and the invention of race to legitimize inequality in the Progressive era. This book is not exactly about fascism but a lot of it is about myth, race science, and film and literature that promoted hate or exclusion.
August 25, 2026
I didn't realize how many anti-black massacres and racial incidents have been committed in this country. Definitely worth reading.
September 14, 2026
Intriguing historical overview of the culture in which I was raised and its sad dishonesty. A fine “Woke me up” volume.
October 11, 2026
Required Reading!
October 23, 2026
A thorough accounting of how the history of racism is deeply entwined with the history of fascism in America, and in particular, looks into the case study of the South leading up to, and after, the Civil War here. Indicting, thorough, and a fast paced read. Highly recommended from the library.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews