John Gillam

Host of Thinking Class, a long-form interview podcast about the cultural, historical, and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider West

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

England faces a civilisational predicament of historic proportions, in no small part because we have forgotten our own history; or, indeed, have been made to forget it.

Episode One of The Call of England, 'The Foundations', is out now, a documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, to find what remains of old England, and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one.

A century ago, H.V. Morton drove east out of London in search of England and he could find it everywhere.

I drove the same road and found that the country has been transformed almost beyond recognition, whether demographically, spiritually, architecturally, and in ways that few nations, indeed, perhaps none, in history have experienced.

Watch and subscribe below.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

England faces a civilisational predicament of historic proportions, in no small part because we have forgotten our own history; or, indeed, have been made to forget it.

Episode One of The Call of England, 'The Foundations', is out now, a documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, to find what remains of old England, and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one.

A century ago, H.V. Morton drove east out of London in search of England and he could find it everywhere.

I drove the same road and found that the country has been transformed almost beyond recognition, whether demographically, spiritually, architecturally, and in ways that few nations, indeed, perhaps none, in history have experienced.

Watch and subscribe below.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

@pvanpelt @Tom_Rowsell Thanks, Patrick. Hope you enjoy it as each episode releases.

[Tom Rowsell @Tom_Rowsell]

New patriotic travel series

[David Betz @DavidBe31099196]

It’s not just the PM, every political figure, notable media personality, celebrity, sportsman, influencer—and above all every serving policeman—should now take the knee in public for Novak and much else besides. It is a cost-free gesture of physical rhetoric that might, just might, bleed off some of the explosive tension now building across these islands.

They invented this symbolic act and once urged it on with fanatical insistence. Today they cannot perform it. That inability is the tell.
To take the knee is not a polite nod of respect; it is ideological submission. It was always a rhetorical bludgeon designed to force public signalling of allegiance.

Refuse it and you declare for your tribe; perform it and you declare for the other. Such overt tribal markers only become urgent when people sense the approach of real stakes—when security feels fragile and the ancient business of friend-and-foe calculation begins. We are on the cusp.

Britain’s culture war is no longer a metaphor. It is the prelude and the recruiting sergeant for something uglier. Rotherham, Oldham, Southport; grooming scandals airbrushed for decades; two-tier policing that can no longer be denied; official reports shelved while 2024’s rioters were branded 'far-right' and far larger provocations ignored—these are not isolated failures.

They are symptoms of a profound cleavage over who we are, what our laws still mean, and whose side the state is truly on. When the institutions meant to protect the vulnerable instead shield the predators and gaslight the public, legitimacy begins to haemorrhage.

James Davison Hunter, who popularised the term 'culture war,' feared symbolic struggle would harden into actual conflict. He was right to be afraid. British strategists who still treat this as mere noise—something separate from the 'real' wars that preoccupy them—do disservice to their craft. 

Wars are not always tidy ways-ends-means calculations within the bounded world of soldiers and statesmen. Sometimes they erupt volcanically from below. This is not outside Clausewitz’s trinity; it reveals its terrifying malleability. 

When the passion of the people becomes dominant, the army can become spectator, and a state that has lost legitimacy finds itself unable even to guarantee its own survival.

The tribes are already counting their numbers. History is brutally clear on what follows when they stop trusting the state to keep score. A simple kneeling could once have signalled magnanimity and bought vital time. The fact it is now impossible for one side shows how late the hour truly is.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

Indeed, and no one should be fooled that because it was an ideological and cultural revolution that it was a bloodless one.

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

'The police were always one of the top targets of the slow-motion British Revolution that has swept through this country since the 1980s. You didn’t notice? You weren’t meant to. This was the world’s first revolution that left all the buildings standing, just changed the laws, the rules and the morals.' https://t.co/SXM7WoAdU2 via @DailyMail

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

@SymondsSally @Harry_pitt I hope you enjoy it, Sally.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

England faces a civilisational predicament of historic proportions, in no small part because we have forgotten our own history; or, indeed, have been made to forget it.

Episode One of The Call of England, 'The Foundations', is out now, a documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, to find what remains of old England, and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one.

A century ago, H.V. Morton drove east out of London in search of England and he could find it everywhere.

I drove the same road and found that the country has been transformed almost beyond recognition, whether demographically, spiritually, architecturally, and in ways that few nations, indeed, perhaps none, in history have experienced.

Watch and subscribe below.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

@dalipolitial Absolutely he was. His writing qualities are perhaps impossible to find today.

[Benjamin Jones @BenBarryJones]

Multiculturalism is crumbling. Free speech is in crisis.

Britain's future now looks like Northern Ireland's past, but with sectarianism on a vastly bigger scale.

Here is what I said at @SpeechUnion's recent Belfast event

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

@nativenorthnn Morton has a style of writing that is, sadly, rarely found today. His descriptions of the England certainly leave the soul yearning for a lost world.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

I appeared on @warkmalsh's Feral Philosophy podcast to discuss the nature of nations and the future of England and Britain, including the impact of denying the English cultural belonging, whether the nation can recover following the loss of Christianity given the widespread failure of self-government in modern Britain, and the psychological cost of becoming disconnected from place, history and people.

https://t.co/blT5ZXAX57

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

Watch and subscribe: https://t.co/yvLLFhmpVn

The Call of England is a six-part documentary series. New episodes released fortnightly on YouTube and Substack.
▶ YouTube: https://t.co/1tFtmJI67t
✍️ Substack: https://t.co/QfHCRhqaDK
🎧 Spotify: https://t.co/iMr5fJ3dNH
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/huS5GETJva

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

@bencobley Thank you, monsieur.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

In three hours, I am glad to say that you will, as I did, finally hear The Call Of England.

The Call of England is a six-part documentary series brought to you by me at Thinking Class.

'The Foundations' is the first episode of The Call of England, a six-part documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, and to find what remains of old England and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one.

Broadcasts at 3pm GMT on Wednesday 3rd June.

New episodes released fortnightly on YouTube and Substack.

Subscribe to Thinking Class below to hear The Call of England.

[NPRG @CptHastings1916]

One might almost conclude that the old ideals of humility, piety, patriotism, duty, deep learning, and respect for tradition formed a more capable, wise and competent elite than glib egalitarian waffle blended with relentless Year Zero self-righteousness.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

Here's a speech I gave ahead of a preview screening at @verdur_in just over a month ago, in which I explain England's civilisational predicament and how we might escape it.

https://t.co/dX29JaYcVM

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

In three hours, I am glad to say that you will, as I did, finally hear The Call Of England.

The Call of England is a six-part documentary series brought to you by me at Thinking Class.

'The Foundations' is the first episode of The Call of England, a six-part documentary travelogue retracing H.V. Morton's journey 100 years ago to understand the English people, the people who made England, and to find what remains of old England and what has been lost in the emergence of a new one.

Broadcasts at 3pm GMT on Wednesday 3rd June.

New episodes released fortnightly on YouTube and Substack.

Subscribe to Thinking Class below to hear The Call of England.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

▶ YouTube: https://t.co/W3KQe2ynQH . ✍️ Substack: https://t.co/ytAxfJBnIK
🎧 Spotify: https://t.co/jzAYzmb3PA
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/dbr9O2hcwe

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

Watch on YouTube: https://t.co/I8ElfewK7O

Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world. Hosted by John Gillam. Subscribe:
▶ YouTube: https://t.co/Ab3RjUMXoX✍️ Substack: https://t.co/QfHCRhqaDK
🎧 Spotify: https://t.co/iMr5fJ3dNH
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/huS5GETJva
🐦 X: https://t.co/jN8nM9VFhA New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

[John Gillam @thinkingclasses]

I was lucky enough to speak with @robkhenderson and Theodore Dalrymple recently about the ideas that claimed to show compassion to the poor across the West but have made everything so much worse.

"Common sense is like oxygen: the higher you go, the thinner it gets." - Rob Henderson, citing his professor John Gaddis

"There has been a long march not just through the institutions, but through the minds of the young. When young people want to praise themselves, they describe themselves as non-judgmental. For them, the highest form of morality is amorality." - Theodore Dalrymple

Watch and subscribe below:

https://t.co/I8ElfewK7O