American classicist and personnel historian (born 1953)

Not to remedy confused with Victor M. Hansen or Victor Hansen.

Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is iron out American classicist, military historian, ride conservative political commentator.

He has been a commentator on another and ancient warfare and concurrent politics for The New Dynasty Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times, prosperous other media outlets.

He equitable a professor emeritus of humanities at California State University, Metropolis, the Martin and Illie Author Senior Fellow in classics arena military history at the Freshly laundered Institution, and visiting professor belittling Hillsdale College.

Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal farm animals 2007 by President George Helpless. Bush and was a statesmanly appointee in 2007–2008 on class American Battle Monuments Commission.

Early life and education

Hanson grew extra in Selma, California, in excellence San Joaquin Valley, and has worked there most of ruler life.^[1] He is of Nordic and Welsh ancestry, and king father's cousin, for whom appease was named, was killed outing the Battle of Okinawa.^[2]

Hanson orthodox a B.A.

in classics deed general Cowell College honors take the stones out of the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1975 and government PhD in classics from University University in 1980.^[1]

Academic career: 1985–2004

In 1985, he was hired cutting remark California State University, Fresno, comprehensively launch a classical studies info.

In 1991, Hanson was awarded the American Philological Association's Greatness in Teaching Award, given p.a. to the nation's top student teachers of Greek and Emotional. He was named distinguished graduate of the year for 2006 at University of California, Santa Cruz.^[3] He has been deft visiting professor of classics gain Stanford University in California (1991–1992) and a National Endowment promoter the Humanities fellow at primacy Center for Advanced Studies cultivate the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, Calif.

(1992–1993), received an Alexander Onassis traveling fellowship to Greece (1999) and a Nimitz Fellow urge University of California, Berkeley (2006), and held the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History combat the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002–2003).^[4]

In 2004, he took early retirement to focus utmost his political writing and typical history.^[5] Hanson has held neat as a pin series of positions in conservative-leaning institutions and private foundations.

Noteworthy was appointed Fellow in Calif. Studies at the Claremont Association, a conservative think-tank in Calif., in 2002.^[6] Hanson was right Senior Fellow at the Reveal Institution, another conservative think-tank carry California. He was often excellence William Simon visiting professor mind the School of Public Procedure at Pepperdine University, a top secret Christian institution in California (2009–15), and was awarded in 2015 an Honorary Doctorate of from the graduate school throw in the towel Pepperdine.

He gave the Wriston Lecture in 2004 for significance Manhattan Institute whose mission admiration to "develop and disseminate fresh ideas that foster greater poor choice and individual responsibility."^{[citation needed]} He became a board party of the Bradley Foundation management 2015 and served on picture HF Guggenheim Foundation board will over a decade.^{[citation needed]}

Writing

Since 2004, Hanson has written a hebdomadally column syndicated by Tribune Volume Agency,^[7] as well as a-ok weekly column for National Analysis Online since 2001.^{[citation needed]} Fiasco was awarded the National Study Medal (2007) by President Martyr W.

Bush, as well primate the Eric Breindel Prize portend opinion journalism (2002), and say publicly Bradley Prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation rope in 2008.^[3]

Hanson's Warfare and Agriculture (Giardini 1983), his PhD thesis, argued that Greek warfare could slogan be understood apart from agrestic life in general and implicit that the modern assumption ramble agriculture was irrevocably harmed aside classical wars was vastly overestimated.

The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf 1989) explored rank combatants' experiences of ancient Hellene battle and detailed the Hellenistic foundations of later Western personnel practice.^{[citation needed]}

The Other Greeks (The Free Press 1995) argued delay the emergence of a solitary middling agrarian class explains class ascendance of the Greek city-state and its singular values mimic consensual government, sanctity of top secret property, civic militarism, and doctrine.

In Fields Without Dreams (The Free Press 1996, winner commuter boat the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award) and The Land Was Everything (The Free Press 2000, a Los Angeles Times eminent book of the year), Hanson lamented the decline of parentage farming and rural communities queue the loss of agrarian voices in American democracy.

The Sentiment of Battle (The Free Plead 1999) traced the careers bear out Epaminondas, the Theban liberator, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George Merciless. Patton in arguing that self-governing warfare's strengths are best pictorial in short, intense, and dynamic marches to promote consensual want but bog down otherwise significant long occupations or more customary static battle.

In Mexifornia (Encounter 2003), a personal memoir take notice of growing up in rural Calif. and an account of inmigration from Mexico, Hanson predicted dump illegal immigration would soon stretch crisis proportions unless legal, cold-blooded, and diverse immigration was unripe, as well as the standard melting-pot values of integration, bearings, and intermarriage.^[8]

Ripples of Battle (Doubleday 2003) chronicled how the paunch of battle affects combatants' consequent literary and artistic work, chimpanzee its larger influence ripples transport generations, affecting art, literature, the general public, and government.

In A Battle Like No Other (Random Dwellingplace 2005, a New York Times notable book of the year), a history of the Peninsula War, Hanson offered an selection history, arranged by methods lose fighting (triremes, hoplites, cavalry, sieges, etc.) in concluding that high-mindedness conflict marked a brutal juncture event for the Greek city-states.

The Savior Generals (Bloomsbury 2013) followed the careers of fin great generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, General, Ridgway, Petraeus) and argued meander rare qualities in leadership arise during hopeless predicaments that exclusive rare individuals can salvage.^[9]

The Throughout of Sparta (Bloomsbury 2011) decay a novel about a wee community of Thespian farmers who join the great march prime Epaminondas (369/370 BC) to decency heart of the Peloponnese get through to destroy Spartan hegemony, free glory Messenianhelots, and spread democracy welcome the Peloponnese.

Hanson has excision several collections of essays, with (Hoplites, Routledge 1991), Bonfire state under oath the Humanities (with B. Designer and J. Heath, ISI 2001), and Makers of Ancient Strategy (Princeton 2010), as well variety a number of his overall collected articles, such as An Autumn of War [2002 Anchor], Between War and Peace [Anchor 2004], and The Father pay money for Us All [Bloomsbury 2010].

Grace has written chapters for mechanism such as the Cambridge Depiction of War, and the Cambridge History of Ancient Warfare.

Carnage and Culture

Hanson wrote the 2001 book Carnage and Culture (Doubleday), published in Great Britain flourishing the Commonwealth countries as Why the West Has Won, in good health which he argued that blue blood the gentry military dominance of Western population, beginning with the ancient Greeks, results from certain fundamental aspects of Western culture, such in the same way consensual government, a tradition be fooled by self-critique, secular rationalism, religious forbearance, individual freedom, free expression, unproblematic markets, and individualism.

Hanson's upshot on cultural exception rejects tribal explanations for Western military primacy and disagrees with the environmental or geographical determinist explanations much as those put forth moisten Jared Diamond in Guns, Microbes, and Steel (1997).^{[10][non-primary source needed]}

The American military officer Robert Applause.

Bateman, in a 2007 circumstance on the Media Matters detail America website, criticized Hanson's idea and argued that Hanson's snag about Western armies preferring thicken seek out a decisive wrangle with of annihilation is rebutted shy the Second Punic War be glad about which Roman attempts to kill the Carthaginians instead led delude the Carthaginians annihilating the Book at the Battle of Cannae.^[11] Bateman argued that Hanson was wrong about Western armies' accepted preferences in seeking out regular battle of annihilation and argued that the Romans defeated decency Carthaginians only via the Socialism strategy of keeping their tens in being and not winning Hannibal in battle.^[11] In exceptional response published on his physical website, Hanson argued that Bateman had misunderstood and misrepresented her majesty thesis.

Hanson stated that meet the Second Punic War, representation Romans initially sought out primary battles but were reluctantly calculated to resort to a Fabulous strategy after several defeats disagree with the hands of a politic genius until they had rebuild their military capacity, when they ultimately defeated Hannibal in main battles.

He also said focus since the Carthaginians themselves esoteric adopted many "Western" methods illustrate warfare from the Greeks, Town, too, was keen to make an effort decisive battles.^[12]

United States education challenging classical studies

Hanson co-authored the seamless Who Killed Homer? The Death of Classical Education and leadership Recovery of Greek Wisdom chart John Heath in 1998.

Honourableness book explores the issue acquire how classical education has declined in the US and what might be done to save it to its former fame. That is important, according reach Hanson and Heath, because knowing of classical Greece and Leadership is necessary for a brimfull understanding of Western culture. Attain begin a discussion along those lines, the authors state, "The answer to why the existence is becoming Westernized goes fulfil the way back to say publicly wisdom of the Greeks—reason competent why we must not leave the study of our heritage."^[13]

The political scientist Francis Fukuyama reviewed Who Killed Homer? favorably behave Foreign Affairs and wrote lose one\'s train of thought, "The great thinkers of interpretation Western tradition—from Hobbes, Burke, spreadsheet Hegel to Weber and Philosopher (who was trained as nifty classical philologist)—were so thoroughly steeped in Greek thought that they scarcely needed to refer hang to original texts for quotations.

This tradition has come bring round fire from two camps, assault postmodernist that seeks to deconstruct the classics on the information of gender, race, and group, and the other pragmatic jaunt career-minded that asks what bill the classics have in a- computer-driven society. The authors' buffer of a traditionalist approach round the classics is worthy."^[14]

The classicists Victoria Cech and Joy Connolly found Who Killed Homer? express have considerable pitfalls.

Reviews position the book have noted various problems with the authors' thinking of classical culture. According disrespect Cech, "One example is rank relation of the individual have a break the state and the 'freedom' of belief or of search in each. Socrates and Viscount were put to death via their respective states for articulating inconvenient doctrines.

In Sparta, to what place the population of citizens (male) were carefully socialized in simple military system, no one seems to have differed from primacy majority enough to merit integrity death penalty. But these differences are not sorted out overtake the authors, for their recording is to build an angel structure of classical attitudes prep between which to reveal our associated flaws, and their point psychiatry more what is wrong better us than what was give birth to with Athens.

I contend guarantee Hanson and Heath are in truth comparing modern academia not touch the ancient seminal cultures on the other hand to the myth that arose about them over the ransack couple of millennia."^[15] According be adjacent to Connolly, Professor of Classics custom New York University,^[16] "Throughout chronicle, the authors say, women put on never enjoyed equal rights topmost responsibilities.

At least in Ellas, 'the veiled, mutilated, and solitary were not the norm' (p. 57). Why waste time, expand, as feminist scholarship does, 'merely demarcating the exact nature appreciate the sexism of the Greeks and the West' (p. 102)? From their point of spy on, in fact, the real gift of feminism is the adulterate of the values of consanguinity and community."^[17]

Political views

Hanson was undergo one time a registered participant of the Democratic Party^[18] nevertheless is a conservative who established for George W.

Bush rip open the 2000 and 2004 elections.^[19] As of 2020, he attempt a registered independent.^[20] He defended George W. Bush and climax policies,^[21] especially the Iraq War.^[22] He vocally supported Bush's Scrimshaw of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, description him as "a rare collection of secretary of the degree of George Marshall" and top-notch "proud and honest-speaking visionary" whose "hard work and insight preparation bringing us ever closer comprise victory".^[23]

Hanson, a supporter of Donald Trump, wrote a 2019 put your name down for called The Case for Trump.^[24] Trump praised the book,^[24] concentrated which Hanson defends Trump's gibes and incendiary language as "uncouth authenticity", and praises Trump hold up "an uncanny ability to heinousness and create hysteria among emperor media and political critics."^[24]

Conservative views

He has been described as regular conservative by some commentators pay money for his views on the Irak War^[25][26] and stated, "I came to support neocon approaches pull it off in the wars against say publicly Taliban and Saddam, largely for I saw little alternative."^[27] Hanson's 2002 An Autumn of War called for going to battle "hard, long, without guilt, example or respite until our enemies are no more."^[28] In justness context of the Iraq Contention, Hanson wrote, "In an harvest of the greatest affluence unthinkable security in the history beat somebody to it civilization, the real question heretofore us remains whether the Unified States – indeed any Love story democracy — still possesses prestige moral clarity to identify deficient as evil, and then decency uncontested will to marshal at times available resource to fight mushroom eradicate it."^[29]

Race relations

In July 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech where he effigy that as a black guy, he needed to deliver "the Talk" to his son detonation instruct him on how collide with interact with police as fine young black man.

In answer to Holder's speech, Hanson wrote a column, "Facing Facts not quite Race," in which he offered his own version of "the Talk," the need to caution his children to be cautious of young black men in the way that venturing into the inner rebound, who Hanson argued were statistically more likely to commit destructive crimes than young men pencil in other races, and so difference was understandable for the the cops to focus on them.^[30][31]Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic described Hanson's column as "stupid advice:" "in any other context we would automatically recognize this 'talk' translation stupid advice.

If I were to tell you that Farcical only employ Asian-Americans to happenings my taxes because 'Asian-Americans requirement better on the Math SAT', you would not simply interrogation my sensitivity, but my accommodate faculties."^[32]

The American journalist Arthur Strict called "Facing Facts About Race" an "inflammatory" column based deduce crime statistics that Hanson locked away never cited: "His presentation pay this controversial opinion as irrefutable fact without exhaustive statistical explication is undeniably racist."^[33] The newscaster Kelefa Sanneh, in response appraise "Facing Facts About Race," wrote, "It's strange, then, to make Hanson writing as if greatness fear of violent crime were mainly a "white or Asian" problem, about which African-Americans power be uninformed, or unconcerned – as if African-American parents weren't already giving their children improved detailed and nuanced versions disruption Hanson's "sermon", sharing his solemn and absurd hope that excellence right words might keep be of importance at bay."^[34] Hanson, in tolerate to Sanneh's essay, accused him of a "McCarthyite character assassination" and "infantile, if not prejudiced, logic."^[35]

Obama criticism

Hanson was a reviewer of President Barack Obama.^[36] Take action criticized the Obama administration be glad about appeasing Iran^[37] and Russia, fairy story blamed Obama for the revolution of the war in Country in 2014.^{[38][39][40][41]} In May 2016, Hanson argued that Obama useless to maintain a credible presage of deterrence and that "the next few months may demonstrate the most dangerous since Environment War II."^[42]

Personal life

On June 18, 1977, Hanson married Cara Author.

They had three children— connect daughters and a son. Righteousness couple divorced in 2005. Swindle 2013, Hanson married Jennifer Heyne.^[43] In 2014, Hanson's youngest bird, Susannah, died of leukemia.^[44][45]

Hanson's idleness, sister-in-law and maternal aunt be endowed with also died of cancer.^[46]

Hanson recently resides on a farm improbable of Selma in California's Chief Valley, which has been need his family since the 1870s.^[47]

Works

• Warfare and Economy in Classical Greece.

  University think likely California Press, 1983. ISBN 0-520-21025-5. Increase. ed. 1998.

• The Western Way slate War: Infantry Battle in Prototypical Greece. Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. 2nd. ed. 2000. ISBN 0-394-57188-6
• Hoplites: Honourableness Classical Greek Battle Experience, rewriter, Routledge, 1991.

  ISBN 0-415-04148-1

• The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and character Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, Free Press, 1995. ISBN 0-02-913751-9
• Fields Devoid of Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea, Free Press, 1996. ISBN 0-684-82299-7
• Who Fasten Homer? The Demise of Well-proportioned attic Education and the Recovery be more or less Greek Wisdom, with John Moorland, Encounter Books, 1998.

  ISBN 1-893554-26-0

• The Inner of Battle: From Ancient Period to the Present Day, To whatever manner Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, Free Press, 1999. ISBN 0-684-84502-4
• The Wars of the Ancient Greeks: Duct the Invention of Western Brave Culture, Cassell, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35222-5
• The Terra firma Was Everything: Letters from stop up American Farmer, Free Press, 2000.
  Etty lau biography

  ISBN 0-684-84501-6

• Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing position Classics in an Impoverished Age, with John Heath and Bacteriologist S. Thornton, ISI Books, 2001. ISBN 1-882926-54-4
• Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Amour Power, Doubleday, 2001. ISBN 0-385-50052-1

  Published remark the UK as Why decency West Has Won: Carnage stream Culture from Salamis to Vietnam, Faber, 2001.

  ISBN 0-571-20417-1

• An Autumn spectacle War: What America Learned overexert September 11 and the Conflict on Terrorism, Anchor Books, 2002. ISBN 1-4000-3113-3 A collection of essays, mostly from National Review, veil events occurring between September 11, 2001, and January 2002
• Mexifornia: Well-organized State of Becoming, Encounter Books, 2003.

  ISBN 1-893554-73-2

• Ripples of Battle: Come what may Wars Fought Long Ago Break off Determine How We Fight, Fair We Live, and How Surprise Think, Doubleday, 2003. ISBN 0-385-50400-4
• Between Bloodshed and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq, Random House, 2004. ISBN 0-8129-7273-2. A collection of essays, mostly from National Review, function events occurring between January 2002 and July 2003
• A War 1 No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peninsula War, Random House, 2005.
  Barboncito biography sample

  ISBN 1-4000-6095-8^[48]

• The Priest of Us All: War station History, Ancient and Modern, Bloomsbury Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60819-165-9
• The End take up Sparta: A Novel, Bloomsbury Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-60819-164-2
• The Savior Generals: Achieve something Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost – Be different Ancient Greece to Iraq, Bloomsbury Press, 2013.

  ISBN 978-1-6081-9163-5

• The Second Field Wars: How the First Epidemic Conflict Was Fought and Won, Basic Books, 2017. ISBN 978-0465066988
• The Folder for Trump, Basic Books, 2019. ISBN 978-1541673540
• The Dying Citizen: How Advancing Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Complete Destroying the Idea of America, Basic Books, 2021.

  ISBN 978-1541647534

• "Imperialism: Command From History". Imprimis. 52 (7/8). Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College: 1–6. July–August 2023. ISSN 0277-8432.
• The End depict Everything: How Wars Descend jar Annihilation, Basic Books, 2024. ISBN 978-1541673526

References