Here’s the great populist, Louisiana US Senator Huey P. Long’s famous 1934 speech (often cited by his 21st century admirer Robert Barnes) regarding “The Great Barbeque” of the wealthy power brokers of America. Not many LRC observers are probably aware that this pointed reference has a prior source.“The Great Barbecue” is a famous metaphor coined by the Progressive historian Vernon L. Parrington to describe the widespread political corruption, land giveaways, and government subsidies that characterized the American Gilded Age (roughly the post-Civil War era).In his Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Main Currents in American Thought (published in 1927), Parrington used the image of a “Gargantuan” public feast to which all were invited in theory, but where, in practice, only the extreme wealthy and politically connected elite gorged themselves on the nation’s resources.Key aspects of Parrington’s “Great Barbecue”:Government Giveaways: Parrington highlighted how Congress bestowed “rich gifts” in the form of public lands, tariffs, and subsidies to influential citizens, land speculators, and big businesses, particularly the railroad companies.Critique of Laissez-Faire: The metaphor was a sharp critique of the prevailing laissez-faire (minimal government intervention) ideology of the time, arguing that it led to the ruthless exploitation of public resources and vast economic inequality.Loss of Frontier Ideal: He lamented that this era marked the end of the American frontier’s “vigorous individualism,” replaced by a “standardized life, its machine culture, its mass psychology” that would have been unrecognizable to earlier figures like Jefferson and Lincoln.The phrase has endured as a potent historical term to describe periods of public resource exploitation for private gain.Main Currents in American Thought is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, three-volume work by Vernon Louis Parrington that analyzes American literature and intellectual history from 1620 to 1920, focusing on the tension between Jeffersonian democracy and Hamiltonian elitism, and tracing the shift from Romanticism to Critical Realism. Published in 1927, it interprets American thought through the lens of political and social forces, arguing that literature reflects these underlying currents, with key figures like Franklin, Jefferson, and Twain as central to its narrative.Key aspects of the work:Scope: A comprehensive cultural history of American ideas and literature from the colonial era to the early 20th century (1620-1920).Structure: Divided into three volumes: The Colonial Mind, The Romantic Revolution, and The Beginnings of Critical Realism.Central Thesis: American thought is shaped by a fundamental conflict between two main traditions: the populist, democratic, agrarian ideals of Jefferson and the elitist, commercial, Hamiltonian perspective.Methodology: Integrates social and political history with literary analysis, arguing that literature is a product of its time and reflects these larger “currents”.While published in 1927, it is one of the most famous and influential works by an American historian in the 20th Century.Parrington has been a key seminal resource for me for 45 years since first becoming acquainted with his three-volume masterwork. I keep it next to my desk in my library of over 3000 volumes.Significance: Won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 and remains influential for its ambitious scope and Progressive-era perspective, shaping the study of American literature and history.The latest detailed scholarly analysis of “The Great Barbeque” is found in Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929, by Patrick Newman. It is both comprehensive and incisive.I have purchased both hardcover and paperback editions of this new, explementary volume by this rising Rothbardian Austro-Libertarian scholar. It is an excellent recommended holiday gift for family, friends, co-workers and colleagues, and libraries.https://www.amazon.com/Cronyism-Rise-Corporatist-State-1849-1929/dp/1610167821https://cdn.mises.org/files/2026-07/Cronyism%202%20Rise%20of%20the%20Corporatist%20State.pdfThe post “The Great Barbeque” appeared first on LewRockwell.