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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent essays, but too narrow a selection from a diverse career,
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This review is from: Forgotten Lessons: Selected Essays by John T. Flynn (Paperback)
With the end of the Cold War and America involved in what may be a long war in the Middle East it is natural that the historical roots of current foreign policy get re-examined. A guide may help. And John T Flynn makes a worthy guide in any historical exploration for three reasons. Firstly Flynn was a dissident from what historian Thomas Fleming called "the New Dealers' war" and an opponent of the new Cold War. Secondly Flynn's political career encompassed an apparent swing from the Old Left (he was a progressive and liberal in 1920s and early 1930s, a supporter for extensive control over trusts and at first an FDR voter) to the then newly minted 'Old Right' (opposed to the New Deal's shift to big government, debt financing and war preparations). Certainly Flynn's views changed but much of this political shift also needs to be attributed to a seachange in America's political culture, with Flynn tacking against the current. Lastly Flynn is a worthy historical guide, as this volume illustrates, as he writes clearly and well. His essays are easy to read whilst dealing with complex issues.
I read this volume in association with Ronald Radosh's book "Prophets on the Right" so I was able to get a good sense of the Flynn's career from the two chapters Radosh devotes to Flynn. I would urge other readers to follow a similar course. The strength of this book is the quality of the Flynn essays provided, the first weakness is insufficient introduction or commentary material to give the newcomer to Flynn's writings a big picture overview of how the particular pieces fitted into his overall career. The second weakness is the relative lack of material from Flynn's earlier more progressive / liberal period. Radosh says Flynn, a Wall Street reporter, advocated at one time a 'public utilities' style of regulation for financial trusts. He also wrote extensively on Wall Street and business corruption. Even in his later (1950s) essays he mentions how he saw the Great Depression as originating in speculative excesses. During his early career he wrote a column in The New Republic. I haven't as yet seen any of these writings, although I believe the TNR archives are now online, but my guess is that Flynn's quality writing style was at least as evident in them as this volume illustrates from his later works. It is a shame the author did not give us an insight into this aspect of Flynn's career, I suspect their inclusion would have enhanced his reputation. The only other quibble I have with the volume is that only two "McCarthy" period pieces are included and nothing on China. The two McCarthy pieces are excellent and certainly dispel the prejudice I inherited at college that McCarthyism was some kind of irrational frenzy driven by a crazy man. Flynn mentions the 1938 efforts made by the American Federation of Labor's vice president John Frey before the Dies Committee to expose what he saw as communist penetration of the CIO. Frey, Dies and some of his investigatory staff were then subject to vicious personal attacks and dirty tricks, including a fraudulent letter supposedly written by American fascist leader William Dudley Pelley to Dies. This sham was exposed and the author of "the Pelley letter" was eventually uncovered. Flynn shows that McCarthyism was only one round in some dirty pool being played by more than one team for decades. Flynn also wrote a book on "The Loss of China", the viewpoint once common amongst American right wingers that State Department insiders played a hand in the communist victory. There are no Flynn essays here dealing with that period. This is a shame considering the recent popularity of "Mao: The Unknown Story" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. According to a recent 'The Guardian' review Chang and Halliday claim that "The American General Marshall, who had attempted to mediate in the civil war, had unwittingly saved the communist armies by imposing a truce in the summer of 1946 that lasted for four months. It was this truce that prevented Chiang's armies from crushing the retreating Reds. The ceasefire enabled the latter to be massively replenished by the Soviet side and then reverse the tide to win in Manchuria and then gain the rest of China." Flynn in his 1958 book "While You Slept : Our Tragedy In Asia and Who Made It" has a chapter titled "The Blunders That Lost a continent". Flynn notes the blunder described by Chang and Halliday as "Blunder Number Four". I'm not saying the charges made by Flynn and "the China Lobby" have now been retrospectively justified, but it is probably time the usual charges made against them are revisited. I suspect that the likely result may be a reduced sentence. All told my summary is this book provides access to some excellent Flynn essays, but provides too narrow a selection from a diverse career. Of course we should be thankful for the revival of any of them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Forgotten Conservative,
By J.L. Populist (WI,USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Forgotten Lessons: Selected Essays by John T. Flynn (Paperback)
This collection of essays written by John T. Flynn takes the reader back in time when a "conservative" was something different than what it is today.
Mr. Flynn was a "liberal" or a "conservative" at various points of his life. He is generally categorized with writers of the "Old Right" such as; Robert Taft, H.L. Mencken, and my personal favorite, Garet Garrett. In an essay on economics and the Great Depression he identified a problem plaguing home owners that is familiar to today's crisis- mortgages on houses were much higher than the values of those houses. Another area of deja vu was his complaints about real estate speculating and inflated prices. He had an excellent chapter on income taxes ("The Hand in Your Pocket") from the old conservative viewpoint. Mr. Flynn also wrote a timeless essay on militarism. It can be argued that history has validated that essay! "The Rejected Essay", the paper that was rejected by William F. Buckley is included in the book also. For any reader interested in the writings of the Old Right, this collection of essays is worthy of consideration.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
John T. Flynn Versus the Welfare-Warfare State,
By anarchteacher (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Forgotten Lessons: Selected Essays by John T. Flynn (Paperback)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to destroy Flynn's career for his opposition to the welfare-warfare state.
CIA "Conservative" Bill Buckley blacklisted Flynn from National Review. Flynn's banned NR article appears here.
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