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- [00:05]
Podcast Narrator
Every week, Hillsdale College President Larry Arne joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss great books, great men and great ideas. This is Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio.
- [00:31]
Hugh Hewitt
Morning, Gloria. Good evening, Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. That music means the Hillsdale dialogue is underway. Dr. Lariarn is my guest this week as we plunge into this book, which is the Finest Hour, Volume two of Winston Churchill's memoir of the Second World War. And I have the modern paperback edition. There are many, many different editions. So the pages that I reference may not be the pages that you reference. But, but Dr. Arndt, we read every page of the Gathering Storm because it was so apropos of the time we live in. I don't know if we'll do every page in the Finest Hour. I'm not sure we'll do volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6. But why is the Finest Hour different and unique and important among the other five volumes of memoirs?
- [01:18]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Well, it's the peak. It's one of the turning points. Solzhenitsyn has written a series of, of history books, one of which still in the translation process. And he wrote about what he called knots, that is to say, places where history comes together and everything changes. Because and, and those, those knots tend to form around events that are very narrowly run. Right. That it could have gone the other way. And so one of those happened in May through September of 1940. The finest hour is that period of time. It actually extends until the middle of 1941, because beginning on May 10, this, the Second World War broke out on September 3, 1939, when Hitler and the Soviet Union attacked Poland. And they worked on Poland from September until May of the next year, 1940, and they destroyed it. Also Finland. And right toward the end, we talked about this. Hitler attacked Norway. So the war was spreading. But May 10th was the big day. That's when the Wehrmacht turned its blitzkrieg machine west and they attacked Belgium and France. And they did it in an innovative way and somewhat alike, but mostly different from the way they did the same thing in 1914 to start the First
- [02:53]
Hugh Hewitt
World War, or without the French this time. The theme of the book, and I want to tell people that because it's on the first page, Churchill wrote it. Theme of the volume, how the British people held the fort alone till those who hitherto had been half blind were half ready. He's still not going to let anyone forget that they were not ready when he was called upon to Save the world.
- [03:18]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Yeah, they were not. Britain was not ready and France was really not ready. And we were not ready. And we, of course, didn't get into it for quite some time. But the way they came to be alone was that against every expectation, there's no modern equivalent of this. Hitler conquered France in six weeks and destroyed a three or four million man army in that amount of time and drove the British off the continent. They got most of their soldiers away, many French soldiers, too, almost none of their equipment. That was the only army Britain had. And so when Churchill says alone, that's what he means. At that moment, Hitler was master of Western Europe, into Central Europe, bordering Eastern Europe, and over into Poland. And he was allies with the Soviet Union, the other great remaining independent power in Europe. And between them, they had complete control of the continent, where most of the power and people in the world lived at that time.
- [04:25]
Hugh Hewitt
Now, the first three chapters are on the government, but the chapter two and three, which I think we'll probably spend the most time on, is about the collapse of the French, as Churchill puts it. Four or five millions of men met each other in the first shock of the most merciless of all the wars of which record has been kept. I think we do have. Bill Bennett used to say, we have trouble with numbers in this age. That's a lot of soldiers fighting a lot of soldiers. That's a lot of tanks and airplanes in the air. That's an immense undertaking that we see in movies by little bits and we read books about. But the idea of 4 or 5 million men and all the tanks in the army clashing across Europe is really something. I hope we never see it again. Kind of extraordinary to have had to have lived through.
- [05:18]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Yeah. The Second World War was much bigger. I mean, the First World War was unprecedented and the cost of it, and the fighting conditions were unprecedentedly bad. The Second World War was much bigger, Much bigger. They went on longer and casualties were much higher, although not British casualties. Their casualties were about half what they were in the First World War. And that was partly because technology with which war was fought had changed very much. Maneuver in tanks instead of trenches, and partly because Churchill was in charge and he was always looking for a way to spare life. But it was a terrible thing. And of course, it was a complete astonishment because Britain, you know, first of all, it was a controversial decision. It was controversial to Churchill to ally with France and send an expeditionary force on. Onto the continent. They'd done that before in the world in the wars of Marlboro and Others, but they were always reluctant to do it because they're a great naval power and they have the Channel to protect them. But now it's the airplane time, right? And that means, you know, Britain can get bombed. Soon it would be. And the navy might not even be able to operate safely in the Channel with air power, as proved to be true until they got air superiority.
- [06:50]
Hugh Hewitt
There's a curious part, Larry, at the beginning of the book, I gotta ask you this question. Very beginning of volume two, Churchill almost breaks the fourth plane and is talking to the millions of Americans. This book comes out in 48 or 49. It's a huge bestseller. Everybody wants to read about the war in which they have been involved or their family's been touched. And he spends the first few pages making sure that at least the American reader, and certainly the British reader, understands who did what. And he writes, he doesn't want to insult the United States, but he writes it is in the combined interest of the English speaking world, and that would include Australia, New Zealand and Canada, that the magnitude of the British war making efforts should be known and realized. And he goes on to point out that until July of 1944, which is five years after this thing gets started, Britain and her empire had a substantially larger number of divisions in contact with the enemy than the United States. And then he goes through the casualties. The British lost 303,000 men. The Dominions. The Empire lost 109,000 men. They lost 60,500 civilians in the air raids. In the Battle of Britain, they lost 30,000 merchant and fishermen. And he says, compare that to the United States, which lost all over the world, 322,000. Why does he do that?
- [08:14]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Well, by the time he's writing this book, and indeed before the Second World War, we had become the greatest reserve of power in the world. And he. And we rescued them. It took the British standing alone for us to get a chance to do that, but we rescued them. He wants to make the point that they are serious partners. And also he wants to honor his country, which he got Victor Hansen, in his very good book, the Second World wars, he calls it, because there were such huge theaters all over the world and they operated independently somewhat. He makes the point that pound for pound, the British got the most out of themselves of any nation. They sacrificed so much, you know, and Churchill was just really good at organizing the war, fighting one, fighting it to win, fighting it as cheaply as possible. But here he's simply outnumbered. And so he's got to fight by every hook and crook to try to keep the nation alive. And we have to talk about the politics of this some because there are deep things evident in the parts of this early book about what Churchill figured out over the course of his life about politics.
- [09:34]
Hugh Hewitt
Let's go there because in our last segment, in the last chapter of Gathering Storm, Chamberlain steps down. Churchill steps up after playing his cards very nicely. He's now in charge of the whole thing. He has to keep the Conservative Party, he's got to keep Chamberlain in the government. He's got to keep Halifax, a couple of other appeasers, Simon and Hoare, and he's got to bring in the other party. It's a balancing act. It's a juggling act that we don't really know much about. That's not how we do our governments. But what a. Yeah, well, he could
- [10:13]
Dr. Larry Arndt
so he he didn't have a term. Right. He could lose his job on any day. In a vote of the House of Commons and the Conservatives had a majority of 120 and they were loyal to Chamberlain and Halifax, who had led them for a long time. And they were cool to Churchill.
- [10:33]
Hugh Hewitt
And remember that he could lose his job on any day. Lose his job on any day. So he had to walk a very fine line. More on their finest hour with Dr. Larry Oren. All things Hillsdale at Hillsdale. Edu all the dialogues@hughforhilsdale.com.
- [10:53]
Podcast Narrator
Hey there, it's Scott Bertram, host of the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. This week I'm joined by an old friend, John Tillman, CEO, CEO of the American Culture Project. He's got a very interesting new book, the Political how the Radical Left Controls America and the Path to Regaining Our Liberty. We'll talk about why so many politicians and elected officials drift to the left after taking office and how to stop it. And Luke Foster joins us From Hillsdale in D.C. discussing the spirit of a gentleman. All that this week on the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Find it at Podcast Hillsdale Edu or wherever you get your audio. This show is a part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to your favorite. You'll get brand new episodes of all your favorite shows sent right to your device and you'll help us know that you're out there listening. Never miss another episode by going to Podcast Hillsdale Edu subscribe. That's Podcast Hillsdale Edu subscribe or click the Follow or Subscribe button on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
- [12:22]
Hugh Hewitt
Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hugh with Dr. Leon, we're talking about the finest hour by Winston Churchill and his command by speech of the House of Commons, even though it wasn't with him.
- [12:32]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Dr. Oren, in the very great speech which is in this volume, it's in the end of the last volume, he says, I will say to my. This House, as I've said to my colleagues in the Cabinet, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. Well, the first paragraph of that is a very short speech, but the first paragraph is only two paragraphs long. The first paragraph is not so famous. And in the first paragraph, he says, I've reorganized the Cabinet over the weekend, and I'm sorry that I didn't get to talk to some of the people who have been fired. And then he goes into that, as I've said to them, I say to you, nothing but blood tort. He completely reorganized the Cabinet in three days, and he had learned how to do that. First of all, there's a part of the American Constitution that he always admired unreservedly. He admired the whole thing. He usually subordinated it to the British, but sometimes not. The provision that there's a commander in chief, and that commander in chief is appointed by the people of the United States. And that means in America, war policy can be uniform, can be united, can be unidirectional. And Britain did not achieve that in the Second World War. First World War. In the Second World War, Churchill organized that over the weekend, and he thought about it for decades. And he mentions in this book where he learned the importance of that. He learned that in the First World War when he was advocating the Dardanelles. But he didn't have the authority to see it through. And he believed that if it had just been prosecuted consistently, it would have succeeded. Instead, the people who did have the authority abandoned it when it got tough, and. And he suffered the consequences. And so he sets up his Cabinet. So there's a small war cabinet. He appoints himself Minister of Defense, and that makes him in charge of the war ministries, all of them. And it makes him the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. That's all the service hedge, the serving officers, the supreme generals and admirals. And that meant that there are these three bodies. There's the War Cabinet and there's the defense civilian establishment, and there's the United War Services. And Churchill is the only member of all three.
- [15:19]
Hugh Hewitt
It's kind of astonishing that he would sit there and ask, not only ask, but demand more and more power. He is going to run this war, and It's a overwhelming amount of power that he's gathering into his hands, but he's doing it, as you pointed out, quite conscientiously. And they're down to five in the War Cabinet. About the War Cabinet, he writes, they were the only ones who would have the right to have their heads cut off on Tower Hill if we did not win. So there are five people. But then about those five people, he writes, a little bit later, it was understood and accepted that I, Churchill, should assume the general direction of the war, subject to the support of the War Cabinet in the House of Commons. The key change which occurred on my taking over was, of course, the supervision and direction of the Chiefs of Staff Committee by a Minister of Defense with undefined powers. So it's all new in British history. He's doing something new for a new exigency.
- [16:22]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Yeah. And he. But also, by the way, something he had thought through for 25 years. You know, he'd suffered the absence of that to his cost in the First World War. And so he. He had reached a place in his life when he was the one who could do this. And of course, there's something controversial. Controversial today about all of this, and controversial. And that is he comes into power on the 10th of May, 1940, the same day Hitler attacks to the West. And it's very important to people to understand the drama of these days. He's writing about these days in this book. And the drama is that on the 8th and 9th of May 1940, there is a debate over a motion of no confidence against Neville Chamberlain and Churchill, and it was likely to succeed. And Churchill could surmise that if Chamberlain fell, he would be one of the two people who would be picked. Halifax, the other one. Churchill spent those two days defending Neville Chamberlain the most fiercely and taking personal responsibility for the failures of the Chamber of Administration on his own shoulders. And that was first of all noble right and effective. And I think it bore fruit because from that time until Neville Chamberlain died in November of that year, he had cancer. He didn't live very much longer than noy had cancer. On the 8th, 9th and 10th of May, a friendship was born. And that friendship was important because on the 27th of May, see, so you're talking about May 10th, the German attack starts and Churchill takes power. And 17 days later, I see 13 days later, it starts on the 23rd of May, it becomes apparent that France is going to fall and Britain is going to be alone and might not get its army back. My wife's father was in that army and left Dunkirk beach the last day anybody did. And remember, my wife was born. After that I might not have ever met. So these dramas are going on and Mussolini not yet in the war, but a Hitler henchman, a former British ally in the first World War and before, is appealing to open a peace conference. And if I remember correctly, Mussolini's son in law or nephew, I can't remember, is the Italian ambassador. And he's talking to Halifax, the foreign minister. And remember, in the cabinet, they are there because they have a constituency of their own and they have some force. And so on the 23rd of May, 13 days later, Halifax begins bringing these appeals for a peace conference to the cabinet, War cabinet, to the war cabinet, the whole cabinet, 25 others don't know this is going on. And so the first day, Churchill temporizes. Let's find out what they say. Second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, it gets to be the 28th and Halifax is becoming insistent. Now if Halifax or Chamberlain or both of them had resigned from the war cabinet and the cabinet, then probably Churchill's government would have fallen, so he couldn't make them right. And you know, remember, there are people writing today that it would have been better to have made a peace at that time because Britain did lose its preeminence in the war through the course of this war. Probably going to lose it anyway because we're a much bigger country.
- [20:32]
Hugh Hewitt
But never mind, never mind, don't go anywhere, America. Much more. Coming up, all things Hillsdale are found at hillsdale. Edu, including Erica Kirk's commencement address, if you missed it, including all their video courses, Hillsdale, Eduardo, of course, all the prior dialogue@hughforhillsdale.com Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt talking with Dr. Arne about all the internal debate debates that go on, really about whether or not Churchill ought to have made a separate piece.
- [21:01]
Dr. Larry Arndt
So remember, there's second guessing about this going on to this day. Well, Churchill doesn't say much for days and then it gets to the 28th and Halifax is pressing and threatening slightly. We have the record of these conversations, by the way, and they're not candidly recited. In this book that we're reading, Churchill does a remarkable thing. He calls on the at the moment, on 28 May, a meeting of the entire cabinet and they don't know what's going on and they don't really know the war situation. And Churchill gives them a speech of an hour. It's a rare speech that he did not write out in advance, but Two guys were in the room and took detailed notes. The best one, a labor minister, a left wing crazy named Hugh Dalton, whoever always loved Winston Churchill. And he wrote down copious notes, right? And we know that Churchill, for an hour, described the war situation and said that it's very serious, said that we might have to try to get our army off France, and we don't know if we can do it. We still have a navy. The airplane problem will be the next battle. And then he says these words which are more or less exact. He said, I've been thinking in these last few days whether it is part of my duty to open negotiations with that man, meaning Hitler. And I believe that if I were for a moment to consider, parley or surrender, every one of you would rise up and tear me down from my place. If this island story is to end at last, let it end when each of us in this room lies choking in his own blood upon the ground. He finished with that, and then they leaped up and cheered him, and there was a huge burst of feeling. Churchill calls it uncommon in the story of the cabinet. And then they get the war cabinet back together, and Halifax says, yes, I think if we open negotiations at this stage, we'll be on a slippery slope. Well, on that day, that remarkable maneuver and those tremendous words are what kept Great Britain in the war.
- [23:24]
Hugh Hewitt
Which is the reason, by the slimmest of threads. Meanwhile, I want to make sure in our 10 minutes, we tell people, I'm not going to cover much of chapters two and three because it's the collapse of the French army. It's very technical. It's full of good maps. Churchill knows his maps. He knows his war. What I take away as a civilian who's not very good with maps, they literally fell apart. They couldn't communicate. The French had millions of men strung out over all of Europe, and they had no reserve. In fact, Churchill writes at one point, rather startlingly, that he's almost physically knocked over by the fact that the French don't have a strategic reserve. I find that I understand what a strategic reserve is. I'm astonished that they didn't have one. Are you?
- [24:16]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Well, the Germans. First of all, the French army wasn't in good nick at this time. But what the Germans did, The French and the British expected the attack to come up through Belgium and that it could not come through a place south and west of the Maginot. Let me get my numbers right. Yeah. South and west of the Maginot Line, because they built these big entrenchments to keep the Germans from coming again. And. And they couldn't get. And what's south and west of that line is the Ardennes forest. And they held the view that the Germans couldn't come through that. Well, the Germans did. They were actually reinforced in that view because some. Some imaginative people thought they might get tanks over those mountain roads, but they could never get enough fuel. And they forgot that they had gas stations all over France. And so the Germans did. Rommel and Guderian got a major tank army behind the French army and between the French army and Paris and its lines of supply, and then it cut those lines of supply, and everything was
- [25:35]
Hugh Hewitt
confusion and very bad to have forgotten the gas stations. We got to come back to that. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt. I'm often amazed by Churchill's memoirs, really Sometimes just surprised. The amazing part, Larry. Winston Churchill, I cannot imagine anything like this today. Flew back and forth, I think, at least three times into the teeth of the battle so that he could talk to the French who were. They're stunned and forlorn and paralyzed to a large extent. They don't have a plan, but they're bullets flying around. He's got 10 hurricanes, but. But he flies back and forth. What do you make of that? That would be considered foolish in this day and age. It would be Yamamoto, Right? Your bait for the intel services to shoot you down.
- [26:26]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Yeah, well, yeah. Andrew Robertson, his very good recent biography of Churchill called Walking With Destiny, goes through how much Churchill traveled during the war. A multiple of all the other world leaders put together because he was keeping a grand alliance. He called it together, and he went three times to beg the French to fight to the last. And the French had a treaty with Britain that they would do that. And they did break that treaty in one of the meetings. De Gaulle, young, he was one of the European military commanders who understood the tank pattern was another. Rommel and Guderian did. And he was junior, though. But Churchill noticed him there and noticed that he had a lot of fire in his eyes and he sat bolt upright. Well, he's in these meetings. Right. But we can also see that the French are collapsing. They call out Petain and Vaegon, heroes of the First World War. Petain was the commander in Verdun, the bloodiest battle in the west in the First World War. And they're trotted out and they're making policy. Now, Peyton would eventually be the president of the Vichy Republic under the German thumb. And at one point, Churchill says, you can consume two German army corps in the streets of Paris. And Peyton says, we've already given the order for the evacuation of Paris. And Churchill replies, nations that die fighting rise up again. Those that surrender tamely are gone forever. And then now we have a record of this from a man named Edward Lewis Spears, who was a very close friend of Churchill and he was raised in France, and who was. His French was excellent. And he was the liaison officer between the British and the French armies in both first and the second world wars. And he wrote excellent books about them. The first one's called Liaison 1914. The second one's called Assignment Catastrophe. And he is the one there as a translator to record these conversations with the French. And he was in very close sympathy with Winston Churchill. He's a brilliant man. In fact, the first time he was elected to parliament was the first time Churchill lost his parliamentary seat. And he immediately wrote to Churchill and offered Churchill his seat. So after Churchill said that about nations that die fighting, Reyno, who was a little better, although they were having one of these meetings in an apartment where Rayno was hanging around with his mistress, and her nightgown was draped over one of the chairs, Something that General Spears noticed. And Rayna says, he's a prime minister. He says, well, if you will give us your air force, we can carry on. And Spears records, he said, that was a moment of danger, he says, because I knew Winston and I knew how generous he was, and I thought he might do that. And Churchill looked down for a minute and looked up and said, this is not the last battle. He says, they must kill us in our island or they cannot win. And Reynold says, how will you stand up against the whole German war machine by yourself? And Churchill says, I haven't thought about it very hard yet, but I expect the plan will be to drown most of them on the way over and choke the rest of them to death on the beach.
- [30:18]
Hugh Hewitt
I want to close with one quick anecdote. Quote, I am a strong believer in transacting official business by the written word. In Churchill's own phrase, he underscores and italicizes written word. He knows he's got all this power. He does not want people speaking in his name unless they've been authorized by him to do so. Is that a practice you follow?
- [30:46]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Oh, yeah. Well, sure. But, you know, Churchill wrote a million email memos, and they're very good. They're tremendous. Once in a while, they're long. They are always well ordered and clear. He had a stamp he would put on things action this day, but. And if you wrote him and he did, most of his memos are very short and very precise and concise right at the point. They don't leave much room for ambiguity. If you gave him a long memo, he would do what Margaret Thatcher used to do. I knew her pretty well and I was told this by several people worked for her. If you handed her a multi page memo while you were standing there, she would start reading the first page and she would put the later pages in the wastebasket. Oh brutal.
- [31:52]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, that's a good message. And you'd pretty soon get one page memos. The statue of the Iron lady is on Hillsdale's campus, by the way, and they had an iron well up to talk about that someday. Dr. Oren don't go anywhere America all things Hillsdalesdale. Edu all the dialogues@hughforhillsdale.com hello, this is
- [32:11]
Jeremiah Regan
Jeremiah Regan, Executive Director of Hillsdale College Online Learning, and I am the executive producer and one of the screenwriters of Revolutionary America, Hillsdale College's new documentary about the founding, showing in theaters only May 31 through June 2. To find a theater near you or to buy tickets in advance, go to Hillsdale. Edu Film. That's Hillsdale. Edu Film. Witness the founding of our nation, described in vivid detail and with sharp accuracy by Hillsdale professors and guests, including narrator Tom Selleck. Take your friends and your family. Go see Revolutionary America. In theaters only May 31st through June 2nd. Buy tickets at hillsdale.edu film. Hello, this is Jeremiah Regan, Executive Director of Online Learning here at Hillsdale College, and I have some great news. We've brought Hillsdale's incredibly popular free online courses to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network, and our next series is the American Left From Liberalism to Despotism, a course taught by Associate professor of Politics Kevin Slack and Hillsdale President Larry P. Arn. After listening to all 11 episodes, you'll have a deeper understanding of what has happened to America in the past 60 years and what we can do about it today. The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, hosted by Online Learning Marketing Director Juan Davalos and me, expands Hillsdale's mission to provide all who wish to learn the education necessary to increase happiness and to preserve the civil and religious liberties of America. We want you to be a part of it at Podcast Hillsdale. Eduardo. Subscribe now to the Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast to hear new episodes every week with additional commentary and insights from our team. Go to podcast hillsdale.edu to learn more. That's Podcast Hillsdale. Edu
- [34:05]
Hugh Hewitt
welcome back America. Dr. Hunt, finish by telling them what you were telling me out there.
- [34:08]
Dr. Larry Arndt
I was telling a student the other day, because we were talking about how you know about the past, because there are all these crazy things being said about the past. And I said, well, the past, we know it because it's written down. Did you ever, I said, discover something that you wrote in high school, a paper or a letter? And they said, yeah, Somebody, by the way, the other day presented me with my original correspondence with Martin Gilbert when I was in Clever. And that starts in 1977, a long time ago. And the young man said, yeah, I did do that. And I said, and wasn't it arresting when you did that? Didn't you correct whatever memory you had of your time back then? Because you write it down. Right. And that means that you know and you know, the records of the college, the future archives of the college, are today my working files.
- [35:03]
Hugh Hewitt
We'll leave it here, but in evidence, when you teach evidence. I don't teach evidence, but I remember it. Something called written documents put into evidence are the past knocking at the door of the present, demanding to be heard.
- [35:15]
Dr. Larry Arndt
That's it.
- [35:15]
Hugh Hewitt
And that's it. Demanding to be heard
- [35:20]
Dr. Larry Arndt
the day you write the thing you don't know about today yet. Right.
- [35:24]
Hugh Hewitt
The future.
- [35:25]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Right.
- [35:26]
Hugh Hewitt
No, you don't.
- [35:27]
Dr. Larry Arndt
That's how you write. If you study with Martin Gilbert, you'd learn. Like, it's such a blessing that Churchill wrote so much, because you can, in fact, know what he was thinking. He wrote so much of it down. And you can have it from the time Churchill followed a rule that he would not excoriate people for things they did unless he had taken a position on it himself at the time. And. And that. And, you know, he did take so many positions, and they are written down and they are spoken in the House of Commons, and all that is written down verbatim. And that means you can know what he thought, but what he's writing about here is exactly connected to that. Right. In other words, the biographer of Hugh Hewitt will ask, Betsy, where's the letters? And, you know, that's the first thing you ask for. Where's the papers, your emails? Right. There's a million of them. Those are hard. They present challenges.
- [36:32]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, my goodness.
- [36:33]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Do they ever, by the way, the digital age, like most of our correspondence, Hugh, which is extensive, is an email.
- [36:41]
Hugh Hewitt
It's an email.
- [36:43]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Will that be around in 15 years? I hope so. The lawyer, our attorney, hopes not, but I hope so. But you see, in other words, there's a danger that the effect of the digital age will be to cut us off from the past. In part, there will be no knock
- [37:04]
Hugh Hewitt
or fewer knocks at the door. Fewer. Dr. Arndt, thank you. We will come back next week and we will talk about the amazing chapters four and five in this book, the rush to the sea, where Larry's father in law and 330,000 other brave and lucky souls get off of Europe as Rommel and Guderra and surround them. Don't go anywhere. Adam, thank you. Harley, thank you. Generalissimo. Thank you. We'll talk to you next time on the next hilltale Dialogue.
- [37:36]
Podcast Narrator
Thanks for listening to the Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at Podcast Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio. For more information about Hillsdale College, head to Hillsdale.
- [37:53]
Dr. Larry Arndt
Eduardo.