Cicero: The Writer
Cicero was one of the most important men of the Roman world. Although he ultimately failed as a statesman, as virtually every statesman does, but he only increased in stature as the years went on.
The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
The Wonders of Wallington: Three
As a visit to Wallington quickly reveals, the Trevelyan notion of artistic expression was mostly satisfied by collecting dolls’ houses and preserving such family arcana as Lord Macaulay’s top hat and shaving kit. But there was one Trevelyan—admittedly a Trevelyan by marriage—who liked to move in artistic circles. Lady (Pauline) Trevelyan, née Jermyn, Sir Walter’s no doubt long-suffering wife, liked to play with the Pre-Raphaelites, and it was she who persuaded Sir Walter (who, left to himself, would have done nothing of the kind) to put a roof over the central quadrangle, and create a large central room. She...
Wednesday’s Child: Music’s Autobiography
In this, my second communication from Munich, I solemnly promised myself to steer clear of politics, notwithstanding that history looms so large in my window – modern parlance for the computer screen – it nearly obliterates thought. And so, as the president of France prepares to bend his knee to Moscow in a ludicrous pantomime of Henry IV’s Gang nach Canossa, I can only repeat Hamlet’s “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” The reason I came to Munich in the first place was to hear a recital that my wife was giving with the remarkable German...
Islam, the Left’s Religion of Peace
Fox News commentators do not often make an intelligent criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy. They are usually content to point out the obvious—that Obama is misguided—while offering alternatives that would hardly work any better. Nonetheless, the neoconservative establishment was right to express outrage in February, when then-State Department spokesperson Marie Harf declared on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC program that defeating ISIS in the long-term will require addressing the “root causes” of terrorism, such as lack of jobs and poverty. This statement was palpably absurd, but it also reflected the consensus of the American and European ruling classes, a consensus that...
Latin, Episode 0: Latin’s Dead, so Why Study It?
In this origin episode of the podcast, Dr. Fleming discusses the importance of studying a dead language in general, why this particular “dead” language is so vitally important for those focused on the patrimony of the West, and provides some practical points and names some possible texts for study. Original Air Date: November 25, 2015 Show Run Time: 26 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner The Fleming Foundation · Latin, Episode 0: Latin’s Dead, so Why Study It? Transcript available now for Charter Subscribers and a la carte purchase. The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin℗ is...
The Wonders of Wallington: Two
Back in 1834, while still in India, cousin Charles Trevelyan had married Hannah Moore Macaulay, sister of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, the great Whig historian of England and author of The Lays of Ancient Rome, who was then a member of the supreme council of India. What a combination! Their only son, who inherited his father’s baronetcy, was Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Bt. (1838–1928), in his day a major Liberal politician strongly in favor of reforming the House of Lords, of giving women the vote, and—true to family principle—total abstinence. He published the life and letters of his...
The Best Revenge, Episode 0: Introduction
“How to live well in a dying age” is an old theme for the founders of The Fleming Foundation, and in this podcast series, Dr. Fleming and his friends will be exploring a variety of ways of living creatively and escaping the melancholy that seems to afflict so many conservatives and reactionaries. This series will explore some of the minor arts of living, from wilderness cooking to writing poetry, making beer, and watching old movies. Nil desperandum. That is Latin for “Despair not!” Original Air Date: November 24, 2015 Show Run Time: 32 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show...
Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 0: Government Will Not Save Us
In this origin episode of the podcast Dr. Fleming talks about the inexorable and necessary link between Christianity and classical culture: why the superstructure of the best of the pagan world often provided good foundations for Christian beliefs, teachings, and practices. Original Air Date: November 23, 2015 Show Run Time: 20 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Transcript available now for Charter Subscribers and a la carte purchase. More Transcripts available here. Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2015. All Rights are Reserved.
Cicero IV: An End and a Beginning
Cicero played an ambiguous role in the final years of the republic. He loyally supported Pompey in the vain hope that he would uphold the old order, but he also allowed himself to be courted by Caesar.
The Wonders of Wallington: One
As the nations of the west slip into an amnesiac sink, knowing neither who they are, where they come from, or what their role in the maintenance of humane civilization is supposed to be, it is inevitable, I suppose, that one starts looking for the source of the intellectual virus that has so successfully turned what used to be western brain matter into pink sludge. In a large general way one can call the disease liberalism, though the destruction we are now witnessing is the effect of the mutations of liberalism that we call socialism and progressivism. As we think...
