About Sean Busick

Sean Busick is Professor of History at Athens State University in Athens, Alabama. He has published seven books and scores of essays on early American history. Among his books are Patrick Henry-Onslow Debate: Liberty and Republicanism in American Political Thought, A Sober Desire for History: William Gilmore Simms as Historian, and the forthcoming The Founding of the American Republic.

Bachman & Audubon: A Scholarly Friendship

By |2013-12-20T15:39:01-06:00October 15th, 2013|Categories: Books, Sean Busick|

Had I the Wings: The Friendship of Bachman & Audubon, by Jay Shuler Jay Shuler’s Had I the Wings is unusual in that it focuses not on an individual or an event, but on a friendship. Together, with the assistance of their families, John Bachman and John Audubon produced two of the seminal works of [...]

The American and French Revolutions Compared

By |2023-07-13T21:28:03-05:00September 14th, 2013|Categories: American Founding, American Revolution, Revolution, Sean Busick|

One of the many differences between the American and French Revolutions is that, unlike the French, Americans did not fight for an abstraction. Americans initially took up arms against the British to defend and preserve the traditional rights of Englishmen. The slogan “no taxation without representation” aptly summed up one of their chief complaints. The [...]

M.E. Bradford and Southern Agrarianism

By |2023-05-07T16:05:00-05:00July 26th, 2013|Categories: Agrarianism, Lee Cheek, M. E. Bradford, Sean Busick, South, Southern Agrarians|

M.E. Bradford was was truly one of the giants of the postwar conservative intellectual movement. A Southerner first, he was naturally both an agrarian and a conservative. The late M.E. (“Mel”) Bradford (1934-1993) was truly one of the giants of the postwar conservative intellectual movement. A Texan (born in Fort Worth), Bradford earned his B.A. [...]

In Memory of Vicksburg and Gettysburg

By |2020-06-30T21:49:35-05:00July 8th, 2013|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Sean Busick|Tags: , |

As we remember the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, it is worth reflecting on how and why these battles and the Civil War altered the course of American history. People at the time recognized that the War was a watershed. Retired Harvard professor George Ticknor felt like Rip Van Winkle [...]

Freeman’s Robert E. Lee

By |2024-01-18T20:34:53-06:00February 19th, 2013|Categories: Books, Civil War, Robert E. Lee, Sean Busick, South|

Though written in the early twentieth century, Douglas Southall Freeman’s biography of Robert E. Lee contains a vital message for the young men and women of today. Lee, especially as presented by Freeman, provides an excellent model for young people to emulate. “Teach him he must deny himself,” said Lee. That was the general’s advice [...]

Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives: Reading & Writing in Sartorial Elegance

By |2014-12-10T11:07:45-06:00December 10th, 2012|Categories: Books, Christmas, Gifts for Imaginative Conservatives, Sean Busick|

Can’t decide what to get for the imaginative conservatives on your Christmas list? Here area few things to feed the vita contemplativa. A membership in the Folio Society. The Folio Society publishes beautifully bound and illustrated editions of some of the world’s greatest books that make perfect gifts. Reading Cicero, Tolkien, Gibbon, C.S. Lewis, and [...]

The Idea That Will Not Die: Secession

By |2014-08-15T17:37:27-05:00November 28th, 2012|Categories: Lee Cheek, Politics, Sean Busick, Secession|

As the recent petitions to the White House confirm, secession is an idea that never goes away. The verb “secede” is derived from the Latin “secessio,” meaning any act of withdrawal. Originally introduced in the seventeenth century as a concept of ecclesiastical discourse and political theory, secession assumes the existence of the modern state, as [...]

A Specialist in the American South: Eugene Genovese

By |2014-02-24T16:43:45-06:00July 3rd, 2012|Categories: Books, History, Sean Busick|Tags: , |

Eugene Genovese is one of the foremost American historians. A former Marxist, he is often branded a conservative—”a label applied to me frequently these days by people who understand nothing,” he wrote in 1994. Though he may eschew being labeled a conservative Genovese admits to having always admired much in conservative thought while being a [...]

The Sack of Athens

By |2014-01-16T13:10:18-06:00May 2nd, 2012|Categories: Civil War, Sean Busick|

Col. John Turchin Today marks the 150th anniversary of the sack of Athens, Alabama on 2 May 1862 by Union troops serving under the command of Colonel John Turchin, who was born Ivan Vasilovitch Turchinov, near St. Petersburg, Russia. Upon entering Athens, Turchin turned his men loose, telling them “I see nothing for [...]

James Hamilton: Women and Children First

By |2013-12-11T08:33:45-06:00January 21st, 2012|Categories: American Republic, Leadership, Sean Busick, Western Civilization|

The cowardly behavior of the Italian captain who recently fled his sinking ship reminds me of James Hamilton, Jr., for whom “women and children first” meant something. James Hamilton (1786-1857) was born near Charleston on May 8, 1786 to James Hamilton, Sr., a rice planter, and his wife Elizabeth Lynch. He was educated at Newport, [...]

Forthcoming Paleoconservative Defense of Founding Principles

By |2014-04-11T15:18:29-05:00December 3rd, 2011|Categories: Books, Lee Cheek, Sean Busick|

Friends, Announcing a forthcoming book by The Imaginative Conservative contributors Lee Cheek & Sean Busick, The Founding of the American Republic. A fine addition to your list of books to enjoy in 2012. To be published by Continuum, December 2012. Below is the publisher’s description. This non partisan book brings often ignored people, ideas, and events [...]

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