Longtime listener and reader here, Sam. Fan of the pod and subscriber! Been eagerly awaiting your episode on Buckley.
My wife and I listened to your episode about Pope Francis recently, and we both remarked how deeply moving it was—positive, humanistic, consoling.
And that got us both to observe that as much as we love Know Your Enemy, how much better would it be to have another show called Know Your Friend? Or to have more episodes on KYE that are about thinkers and figures that you and Matt admire and love, the kinds of intellectuals, historical figures, artists, religious leaders, etc whom you are inspired by?
It was so consoling and nourishing to hear your analysis of Francis—his writings, his vision and impact—and it brought out the best in both of you as well. In these dark times, it lifted up our souls to hear about a good person—eulogized by two other good people. My wife and I were like, “Yeah, more of that please!”
Also, as a leftist, I feel that the Left intellectual tradition just gets short-shrift in general outside the confines of academia. Aside from Marx, people just don’t know much about the pantheon of thinkers and historical figures—they get less attention than the Right, and conservative intellectuals tend not to write about the Left figures with quite the same depth and judiciousness as Tannenhaus and other liberals do for the Right.
So, would love to see a spinoff pod: KYF! Anyway, unsolicited feedback from the peanut gallery.
Great review Sam! And of course the podcast is intellectual history and ought to stay that way. The ideas of these entertainers are downstream of thoughtful people anyway
Your essay is brilliant, Sam; as I am extremely unlikely to ever find the time or the inclination to read Tanenhaus's tomb--and I recognize that such is my loss--your review will have to suffice, and suffice it absolutely does. Thank you!
(Also, when you described Tanenhaus's depiction of the organization of National Review as a "getting the team together" montage, with Brent Bozell as Buckley's "lancer," I actually laughed out loud. Well played, sir.)
Interesting review with just one small problem; Joe McCarthy wasn't Old Right. Bob Taft (R-OH) was Old Right, and so he voted against the creation of NATO out of Euro-skepticism and small government like his forefathers in the Republican party. Robert La Follette Jr. almost certainly would have voted against NATO too, in the Midwestern progressive tradition of his father, had McCarthy not narrowly defeated him in the 1946 GOP WI Senate primary on the issue of patriotic wartime service.
McCarthy voted for NATO[1], out of duty to the new postwar liberal state like his descendants in the Republican party. This includes one Donald John Trump, who has recently elicited higher spending commitments out of European countries so the postwar alliance will continue. Perhaps one man's McCarthyism is another man's Art of the Deal. Loud, ruthless, and quietly bipartisan on the issues that matter most.
Longtime listener and reader here, Sam. Fan of the pod and subscriber! Been eagerly awaiting your episode on Buckley.
My wife and I listened to your episode about Pope Francis recently, and we both remarked how deeply moving it was—positive, humanistic, consoling.
And that got us both to observe that as much as we love Know Your Enemy, how much better would it be to have another show called Know Your Friend? Or to have more episodes on KYE that are about thinkers and figures that you and Matt admire and love, the kinds of intellectuals, historical figures, artists, religious leaders, etc whom you are inspired by?
It was so consoling and nourishing to hear your analysis of Francis—his writings, his vision and impact—and it brought out the best in both of you as well. In these dark times, it lifted up our souls to hear about a good person—eulogized by two other good people. My wife and I were like, “Yeah, more of that please!”
Also, as a leftist, I feel that the Left intellectual tradition just gets short-shrift in general outside the confines of academia. Aside from Marx, people just don’t know much about the pantheon of thinkers and historical figures—they get less attention than the Right, and conservative intellectuals tend not to write about the Left figures with quite the same depth and judiciousness as Tannenhaus and other liberals do for the Right.
So, would love to see a spinoff pod: KYF! Anyway, unsolicited feedback from the peanut gallery.
Great review Sam! And of course the podcast is intellectual history and ought to stay that way. The ideas of these entertainers are downstream of thoughtful people anyway
The founding of NR as assembling a heist team? I’m howling!
Your essay is brilliant, Sam; as I am extremely unlikely to ever find the time or the inclination to read Tanenhaus's tomb--and I recognize that such is my loss--your review will have to suffice, and suffice it absolutely does. Thank you!
Thanks, Russell. That's very kind.
(Also, when you described Tanenhaus's depiction of the organization of National Review as a "getting the team together" montage, with Brent Bozell as Buckley's "lancer," I actually laughed out loud. Well played, sir.)
Interesting review with just one small problem; Joe McCarthy wasn't Old Right. Bob Taft (R-OH) was Old Right, and so he voted against the creation of NATO out of Euro-skepticism and small government like his forefathers in the Republican party. Robert La Follette Jr. almost certainly would have voted against NATO too, in the Midwestern progressive tradition of his father, had McCarthy not narrowly defeated him in the 1946 GOP WI Senate primary on the issue of patriotic wartime service.
McCarthy voted for NATO[1], out of duty to the new postwar liberal state like his descendants in the Republican party. This includes one Donald John Trump, who has recently elicited higher spending commitments out of European countries so the postwar alliance will continue. Perhaps one man's McCarthyism is another man's Art of the Deal. Loud, ruthless, and quietly bipartisan on the issues that matter most.
[1] https://voteview.com/rollcall/RS0810128