March 30—Nancy Bradeen Spannaus (1943-2026), historian, patriot, and editor of EIR for many years, passed away January 16, 2026, in Loudoun County, Virginia, after an 11-year, valiant battle against cancer. Among her many contributions to humanity, she played an outstanding role in research and publication of the history of the United States, and reporting of contemporary events from the vantage point of intervening on the side of principle, and compassion, for their reinstatement as the original, true “American System” in her country.

She herself wrote hundreds of articles, and many books; and helped others to do so. Even in what would be the last year of her life, despite the pain of disease and treatment, she released the book, From Subject to Citizen: What Americans Need to Know about their Revolution, which in this 250th anniversary year, as she intended, is a primer for U.S. citizens of their own history. She begins the book with the frank statement

This book is written as a challenge to my fellow American citizens….

Like the vast majority of Americans raised in the period following World War II, I was taught to believe in and honor Lincoln’s view of our nation’s fundamental character. In my case, decades of historical study have only deepened my belief, and my commitment to fulfilling that original dedication. Many others, for a variety of reasons, have taken the many obvious violations of that original statement of principle in the Declaration of Independence as a reason to dispute our country’s honorable origins—some to the point of almost wishing we had never broken from the British Empire.…

These shortcomings in understanding our founding principles represent the real crisis for our republic, in my view. In my experience, most partisans on all sides of our current bitter political divide are woefully ignorant of many of the basics of our founding. They may be well-intentioned but are acting upon pure emotion, or ideological biases that have nothing to do with the actual history of our country.

I want to do my part to resolve this crisis.

In this issue of EIR, we reprint her article, “European Roots of the American System of Economics,” which she wrote for the second printing in 1996 of her first book, co-authored with Christopher White, titled, Political Economy of the American Revolution, released in 1977.

Founding of EIR

We affectionately refer to her here as “Nancy” because of the decades in which many of us worked with her on a daily basis, as she was always at the helm of one publication or another, including more than one at a time, in the suite of journals and press outlets of the international movement initiated in the United States by Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019).

Born in Maine, Nancy went on to higher education at Bryn Mawr College (B.A., 1965), and the Columbia University School of Social Work (M.S. 1967). As of the 1960s she was resident in Manhattan, New York City, with her husband Edward “Ed” Spannaus, and in the 1970s with their two young sons, Michael and Andrew. There she and Ed met Lyndon LaRouche in the mid-1960s, and were part of the grouping that founded the National Caucus of Labor Committees, dedicated to economic justice, and the political science and culture of progress.

After the 1971 degrading of the world financial system into floating currencies, deregulation of essential economic functions, and related downshifts over that decade, a number of LaRouche publications were initiated. In 1973, Nancy became editor-in-chief of the weekly national news tabloid, New Solidarity. In April 1974 the Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) weekly began, first appearing under the name of New Solidarity International Press Service. The theoretical and policy journal, The Campaigner, had been initiated by 1970, and later that decade, publications were initiated promoting the work of the Fusion Energy Foundation, founded in 1974.

Nancy not only directly, or indirectly, worked on these publications for years, but likewise played a crucial role in the publishing of a powerful series of books over the ensuing decades, especially those concerning American history. For example, in 1978, her associate Allen Salisbury (1949-1992) released The Civil War and the American System: America’s Battle with Britain, 1860-1876. Also in 1978, the first edition of Dope, Inc.: Britain’s Opium War Against the U.S. was released, which came to be reprinted several times, fast becoming the reference book on the banksters in the international dope trade. In 2014, Nancy was editor for the EIR book, The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, a blueprint for world development, which soon became available in Chinese, Arabic, German, and French.

Taking Responsibility

In the 1980s, Nancy and family moved to Northern Virginia, where, in addition to her heavy publishing and leadership activities in the LaRouche movement, she took on special initiatives. This was completely consistent with her unswerving sense that citizens must take active responsibility for their nation, and the world.

In 1982, Nancy Spannaus became president of the U.S. Club of Life, part of an international effort to counter and defeat the global-depopulation campaign signified by the Limits to Growth book (1972), sponsored by the Malthusian ideologues of The Club of Rome. She worked closely with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Club of Life in Europe, who then launched the Schiller Institute in 1984.

When during the late 1980s Lyndon LaRouche and several associates, including her husband, Ed, were tried and convicted in political frame-up trials, and as of 1989 sent to prison, Nancy firmly continued in publishing and organizing drives for their release and exoneration.

Nancy conducted these and other activities, while also bearing great personal loss. Her older son Michael (1970-1990) was killed in a car crash in Virginia.

Nancy also ran for political office. In 1989, she declared as an independent candidate for U.S. senator from Virginia, receiving over 18% of the 1990 vote against incumbent John Warner (R). She ran again in 1993 as an independent candidate for governor of Virginia, and subsequently for U.S. senator from Virginia. Though she did not win these election bids, her campaigning in Virginia succeeded in, among other things, sidelining the political career of Oliver North, a leading unsavory functionary of the Iran-Contra dope-for-guns scheme, who was vying for federal office in Virginia at that time.

All the while, Nancy kept up her day-to-day work in publishing, in which she was an editor’s editor. She was beloved for the respectfulness and grace she unfailingly showed in dealing with authors, whether experienced, or first-timers. This was consistent with her own deep regard for the process of formulating ideas and conveying the truth.

Alexander Hamilton

Early on, Nancy had a special interest in research on Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary of the new United States. EIR in 2016 republished four of his seminal reports in the book, The Vision of Alexander Hamilton, edited by Jason Ross.

When Nancy stepped down as EIR editor in 2015, she went on to publish her research in three books, and began her American System Now blog. In 2019, she released, Hamilton Versus Wall Street; The Core Principles of the American System of Economics. In 2023, she issued Defeating Slavery. Then, last year came her primer on the American Revolution.

While writing, she also took up a heavy schedule of lecturing at various universities, and active participation in historical societies, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, the American Friends of LaFayette, the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, and the Loudoun 250 Committee. Characteristic of Nancy, she also made time to spearhead a local food-donation center in her Virginia home county—sorely needed despite Loudoun County being among the top three wealthiest of all 3,000 counties in the nation.

No surprise then, that Nancy to this day has many and varied “constituencies” of friends, who, though they knew her in different capacities, all share the same gratitude and admiration for her joy in scholarship and dedication to humanity. We at EIR deeply appreciate and well remember Nancy Bradeen Spannaus.