He is the great grandson of businessman David H. McConnell, the founder of Avon, and is also the stepson of actor Sterling Hayden.
He earned a bachelor's degree in 1975 and, after working on the 1976 presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, a Ph.D. in history in 1987, all from Columbia University.
[4][5] McConnell began writing for publications such as Commentary and National Review.
He co-founded The American Conservative with Pat Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopolous in 2002.
In Leftward Journey: The Education of Vietnamese Students in France, 1919–1939, he argues that French paternalistic attitudes led to the rejection of liberalism by Vietnamese students, whose nationalism subsequently radicalized along Marxism lines.