Q and A, June 2018 Part 1: From Under the Rubble, Episode 27

From Under the Rubble with Dr. Fleming and Rex Scott: "Q and A, June 2018 Part 1."

Post your questions as a comment on this podcast.


Original Air Date: June 11, 2018
Show Run Time: 39 minutes
Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming
Show Host(s): Rex Scott

 

From Under the Rubble℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2018. All Rights are Reserved.

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The Fleming Foundation

16 Responses

  1. Khater M says:

    Dr. Fleming
    What do you make of Reagan? I’ve never heard you discuss him at any length. Many of my friends more or less worship him(along with Churchill )

  2. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    Churchill was a great man–though far from a good man–while Reagan was a nice guy who, so far as I could tell, accomplished little and betrayed the people who believed in him. I voted for him the first time and repented within less than a year. He did as much to cheapen American public discourse as anyone and prepared the way for Clinton, Bush II, and Obama.

  3. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    I’ll give this one to Rex.

  4. Charles Martin says:

    Dr. Fleming,

    What are your thoughts on the new Italian government?

  5. Ken Rosenberger says:

    Another very interesting podcast, gentlemen.

    Dr Fleming, please elaborate on Churchill. I’ve been reading a good bit of Second World War history lately, and I was meaning to ask you about Churchill. I hope Professor Brownlow will weigh in on this as well. Wherein does his greatness lie? I know there is great courage here, as well as an unimaginable capacity for work, including his voluminous writing—however good or bad.

    I can certainly see where he was not always a good man. Only FDR seemed to have a bigger crush on Stalin during the war, and it seems to me that many people suffered and died because of their, Churchill and FDR, appeasement of Uncle Jo. On the other hand, I can’t ignore your friend John Lukacs, whose books —to me—are about the best history on offer for the last 50 years (talk about someone significant). I know he revered Churchill enough to attend his funeral in London , no small feat for an American professor in the 60s. Perhaps you can address this on your next podcast, but I hope you’ll talk about Sir Winston in the same way you expounded on Thomas Jefferson in this addition.

  6. Ken Rosenberger says:

    Sorry, last word should have been “edition.”

  7. James D. says:

    Dr. Fleming,

    Thank you for recommending Booth Tarkington. In the past two years, since your recommendation, I have read (or listened to the audiobook of) nearly all of his novels. You are correct that he does not get his due. Small town America in that period does, indeed, seem idyllic, wholesome and safe.

  8. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    What were your favorites? I’ve read most of them–started reading him before my teens. The Penrod stories can be read and reread throughout a lifetime, the trilogy–Magnificent Ambersons, The Turmoil, the Midlander–is his masterpiece, but Alice Adams, the Plutocrat are also very fine. Even his most minor later works are worth a read.

  9. James D. says:

    The Penrod stories are great. They should be considered along with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, as the best American young adult fiction. They can also certainly be enjoyed by adults. I think that The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams are Tarkington’s best work. In the Magnificent Ambersons, a prestigious old family declines as the nouveau riche come to assume their positions. I drew some parallels between this book and the conflict in Lady Baltimore, though the Morgans in the Magnificient Ambersons are more likeable than the obnoxious new rich in Lady Baltimore. I meant to pose this question a while ago: What do you think of George Minafer’s actions in preventing his mother from re-marrying? In some ways he is being selfish in depriving his mother of happiness in her last years, but conversely, although she is presented as a sympathetic character, she was pining away for Eugene during her entire marriage to George’s father. George is protecting his father and his family’s legacy, or what is left of it.

  10. Robert Reavis says:

    Tom,
    Thank you for mentioning the Booth Tarkington stories. The legendary Coach from Army and Indiana, Bob Knight lived those stories as a youngster and young man

  11. Kellen Buckles says:

    Fortunately we have this (from Wiki): A “Revised” edition of Penrod, “revising or omitting certain ethnic descriptions from the original Penrod manuscript that might be considered offensive or inappropriate”, was published by Lasso Books (ISBN 1548402109) in 2017.[3]

  12. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    Thanks, Kellen, for spoiling my day. The portrayal of Herman and Vermin is masterful. They are not goody-two-shoes imitation white kids but mischievous and resourceful black children in the time before such people had been destroyed by the American Left. Their treatment of the bully–whom they chase with the lawnmower–is one of the best parts of the stories.

  13. Harry Colin says:

    This kind of arrogant, authorial intrusion after the fact seems the norm today. As someone who grew up reading the Chip Hilton series, I was thrilled a few years ago when they were re-released; I subsequently bought a few to give as presents. Sadly, I couldn’t resist reading one again, because I saw that they suffered the same fate and were polluted with PC nonsense. Certainly, I am not comparing Clair Bee’s youth sports novels with Booth Tarkington’s work, just sharing how deeply the instinct to re-write our history truly is.

  14. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    Tell us more about Chip Hilton. I read a ton of junk detective fiction, Western novels, egc.

  15. Charles L says:

    Wonderful to hear Dr. Fleming extol Rascal, one of the favorite books of my childhood.

  16. Jacob Johnson says:

    I’m too generally nonplussed to pose a question, but my grandmother would like to hear any interesting details about the rule of Sicily under Fredrick II, having read about the subject years ago, and recently having it come to mind again.