2026 Bernard Bailyn Lecture

The History that Solves the Mystery: Why is the Right 'Laying Siege' to American Institutions?

While Donald Trump dominates the headlines, a project much deeper—and in the long run more menacing—is underway in the United States.  'We are laying siege to our institutions', the notorious US right-wing activist Christopher Rufo has said. Why would anyone speak about schools and other institutions we all rely upon in such military language? Who and what does this siege serve? And what is the endgame of these people? Dr Nancy MacLean, a leading expert on the American right, will unpack this puzzle and explain its soaring stakes for democracy and sustainable life on earth in La Trobe University's 2026 Bernard Bailyn Lecture in North American History. 

Nancy MacLean is the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy Emerita at Duke University, and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Current Affairs and the Lillian Smith Book Award for outstanding writing about the U.S. South. The Nation named it the 'Most Valuable Book' of the year. In late 2023, Democracy in Chains was updated with a new Preface. In 2024, her first book, Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan, came out in a 30th anniversary edition that explains how today’s radical MAGA right draws from the Klan tradition, but is more dangerous.

Recordings of recent lectures in the Bernard Bailyn series of lectures are available on the YouTube channel of La Trobe’s Department of Archaeology and History.