In this analysis of what pre modern ethics have been lost to modern man through the globalist filter that was installed in literature and academia after WWII, Jonathan Bowden gives a lecture on Robert E. Howard, discusses his major works, and then goes on to do an in depth review of Rogues in the House, which I have reviewed on this site ‘Eyes Burning In The Gloom’ earlier this year.

Bowden spends a lot of time on the oral nature of male bonds and on Howard's literary work as a preservation of traditional male culture that flourished until globalism and its attendant isms quenched the masculine spirit in the West. I love his quotes and his suppressed humor, such as his mention of Oliver Cromwell’s statement that, “I disembowel you for Christ’s love.”

Bowden makes a great point by citing the fact that the ethics that built America and were preserved in Howard’s fiction are now reviled by Americans, and that those ethics have proven universal among men where they remain to be practiced in prisons and militaries. He chooses his story quotes well from Rogues in the House, using Conan as an example of the functional ‘innate’ ethics of men ‘when the weapons are out,’ pointing out most pointedly that when Conan kills the ape man Thak he refuses to regard him as anything less than a man, in contrast to the modern liberal habit of dehumanizing the enemy. For the reader interested in a metaphor for the American presidency Rogues in the House is perfect.

This is really more of a podcast than a video, with the camera fixed on a portrait of Howard the entire time, and serves as an excellent introduction to Robert E. Howard and his work.