John Flynn
| John Flynn | |
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John Thomas Flynn (October 25, 1882, Bladensburg, Maryland – April 13, 1964) was an American journalist best known for his opposition during the late 1930s and 1940s to President Franklin Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II. He authored the book The Roosevelt Myth. During the Great Depression he was originally a supporter of Roosevelt who became disillusioned and began criticizing the New Deal as socialistic. Flynn would say in response that it was not his views that had changed and he remained a liberal, but that the popular meaning of liberal had changed. His brand of liberalism is often today called classical liberal and part of the Old Right.
According to the Investors Business Daily: "Flynn was no businessman, no Republican shill. He was a respected, old-line liberal journalist who made his name with a series of books attacking big business. That's what makes his indictment of Roosevelt all the more notable."[1]
His 1943 book As We Go Marching was republished in 1973 by the Arno Press Right Wing Individualist Tradition in America series. The Roosevelt Myth remains in print and is published by Laissez Faire Books. The Ludwig von Mises Institute says, regarding The Roosevelt Myth: "So crucial is a proper understanding of the 1930s to applying Austrian School theory today that this work is highly recommended as a part of every Austrian library."[2]