Hanson, Victor Davis 1953-

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Hanson, Victor Davis 1953-

PERSONAL: Born September 5, 1953, in Selma, CA; son of William F. Hanson and Pauline Davis; married Cara Webb, June 18, 1977; children: Pauline, William, Susannah. Education: University of California at Santa Cruz, B.A., 1975; attended American School of Classical Studies, 1978–79; Stanford University, Ph.D., 1980. Politics: "Independent." Religion: Protestant. Hobbies and other interests: Farming.

ADDRESSES: Home—8343 East Mountain View Ave., Selma, CA 93662. Office—Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, 2320 East San Ramon Ave., M/S 96, California State University, Fresno, CA 93740-8030. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, columnist, and educator. California State University, Fresno, professor emeritus, 1985–; Tribune Media Services, nationally syndicated columnist, 2004–. Stanford University, visiting professor of classics, 1991–92; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, 1992–93; visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, 2002–03; Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, senior fellow. Previously a full-time farmer.

AWARDS, HONORS: America Philological Society Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1991; Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences fellow, 1992–93; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1992–93; Alexander Onassis fellow, 2001; fellow in California studies at the Claremont Institute, 2002; Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism, 2002; Alumni of the Year, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Giardina (Pisa, Italy), 1983, revised edition, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1998.

The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, Knopf (New York, NY), 1989, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2000.

(Editor) Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, Routledge (New York, NY), 1991.

The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, Free Press, 1995, published with a new preface and bibliographic essay, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea, Free Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(With John Heath) Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, Free Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, Free Press (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wars of the Ancient Greeks and Their Invention of Western Military Culture, Cassell (London, England), 1999.

The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer, Free Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(With John Heath and Bruce Thornton) Bonfire of the Humanities, ISI (New York, NY), 2001.

Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.

Why the West Has Won, Faber (New York, NY), 2001.

An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Mexifornia: A State of Becoming, Encounter Books (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.

Between War and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan to Iraq, Random House (New York, NY), 2004.

Wars of the Ancient Greeks, Smithsonian Books (Washington, DC), 2004.

A War like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Hailing from a long line of California farmers, classics professor Victor Davis Hanson has written widely on his specialties: ancient Greek military history and ancient and modern farming—sometimes combining the two topics. Hanson has written several volumes on the classical Greek hoplite soldier, also known as the infantry soldier. He is author of The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece and editor of Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, a collection of essays. In the former, Hanson detailed the soldiers' physical and psychological preparations for battle, how battles actually took place, and what happened to the wounded and slain. Hoplite soldiers were among the Greek elite because only they could afford to outfit themselves with the expensive equipment needed, including shield, helmet, spear, and sword. Opposing groups of soldiers attacked each other systematically on open plains, using virtually no strategy. Hanson had students from his classes act out battles wearing reproduction armor to see how actual battles may have taken place in ancient times. He used the resulting research in Hoplites to create what John Crossland of the Times Educational Supplement called a "plausible impression of Greek battle." The Economist reviewer called the book "a small masterpiece of style and scholarship." Edmund M. Burke of the American Historical Review noted: "The writing is clear and lively, and there is much detail. Hanson takes special pains to focus attention on the plight of the men who engaged in hoplite combat. It is this focus that is the book's distinctive feature." John Hackett of Classical Review remarked of Hoplites: "Hanson's own introduction on the ideology of hoplite battle and his epilogue on the future of Greek military history, as well as his own essay on hoplite technology, are all highly informative and thought-provoking." Writing in Classical World, Jack Cargill labeled The Western Way of War and Hoplites "complementary works" that "are equally indispensable for any serious student of Greek warfare or Greek society." Cargill also noted: "Both are also readily accessible to a wide audience,".

In his study The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, Hanson employed his skills as classical scholar and practical family farmer to address an often-neglected segment of the Greek non-military citizenry—the farmers. He maintains that the Greek farmers played an important role in making Western civilization possible when they became an important class that for a time dictated Greek military and political development. Furthermore, in Hanson's view, the traditional agrarian values of the United States are declining in tandem with the family farm much as they did in Greece, leading to a chaotic age. The work caught the attention of critics. Choice commentator P.B. Harvey noted the "firm basis of textual and physical evidence" that Hanson used to portray "vividly the circumstances and consequences" of farming in ancient Greece. In the Wilson Quarterly, a reviewer wrote that "there is truth to be seen from Hanson's altered perspective, even if it is not the whole truth."

Hanson shifted his focus to modern American farming in his Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea. Hanson grows Thompson seedless grapes on a small San Joaquin Valley farm. There, if the weather cooperates, the harvested grapes dehydrate into raisins which, since raisins can be stored for long periods of time, can be sold when market prices are best. In this work, Hanson criticized the modern farming system, especially large agribusinesses that look to turn a profit in the short term without considering the long-term consequences to the land; and middlemen, who stockpile and dump crops on the market without considering the consequences to the farmers who grew them. A Publishers Weekly contributor described Fields without Dreams as an "eloquent and bitter elegy for the American farm." John Hildebrand of the New York Times Book Review called it "astute, often bitterly funny and the angriest book I've read in ages." Writing in the New York Review of Books, Bill McKibben remarked: "His account of that ruination [of small farming] is so detailed, so angry and funny, that it will surely find a lasting readership. If John Steinbeck showed what it felt like to be a migrant picker arriving in California's pastures of plenty, Hanson defines with similar force what it feels like to be one of the small growers who, several generations later, find themselves just as helpless against the overpowering forces of the market."

With John Heath, Hanson penned Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, a critique of the decline in classics teaching in American universities. The authors propose giving more importance to teaching Greek and Latin, and reaching out to a larger audience to show the importance of what Western cultures have derived from the Greeks and Romans. According to a Publishers Weekly contributor, the authors "shine" at giving examples of what has been learned from the Greeks and Romans. "The authors' defense of a traditionalist approach to the classics is worthy," asserted Francis Fukuyama in Foreign Affairs.

Hanson collaborated with John Heath and Bruce Thornton for Bonfire of the Humanities. The authors take on academics in the humanities, who they see as responsible for the decline of the classics. Composed of new and previously published essays, the book focuses on what the authors perceive as an insular careerism that is mired in fashionable theories. "The authors, who define their own enterprise as 'academic populism,' address this elitism and hypocrisy in a series of scathing essays and book reviews," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.

In his review of The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Bernard Knox of the New York Times Book Review wrote that Hanson widened the "scope of his inquiry to discuss, in rich and fascinating detail, three campaigns in which idiosyncratic, uncompromising generals commanding soldiers of egalitarian societies led armies" on "great" campaigns. These military leaders included Epaminondas, a Theban who led troops during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.; General William T. Sherman, who commanded Union troops during the American Civil War; and General George Patton, who led Allied troops during World War II. Hanson contends that democracies are able to work efficiently to turn citizens into effective soldiers. Lauding Hanson's insight into the men he portrayed, Richard S. Nowicki declared the work a "great book" in his Library Journal review. Although a Publishers Weekly contributor noted that Hanson's thesis is "still a matter of debate," he called the work an "eloquent reminder" of how democracies can rally soldiers as needed. "A brilliant and engrossing work," concluded Knox.

Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power examines important historical battles that have made the nations of the West the world's best combatants. During the course of the book, Hanson addresses such issues as commitment to cause and stability of governments as influential factors in producing good soldiers and military victories. Grant A. Fredericksen, writing in the Library Journal, noted that the author "makes a cogent argument for keeping a cautious eye on future conflicts." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "Hanson's direct, literate style and his evenhandedness should appeal to the liberalist middle of the left and right alike."

Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think is Hanson's take on three battles that he believes have been overlooked as playing a primary role in military history. They include the battle of Delium and the survival of Socrates, a battle at Shiloh during the Civil War, and the fight for Okinawa and the Japanese use of Kamikaze suicide bombers during that battle. Writing in Booklist, Brendan Driscoll called the book "an illuminating and insightful work." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the book is "a worthy—and timely—outing in military history."

Hanson recounts the most important conflict in Greek antiquity in his book A War like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War. "Hanson largely sidesteps the subject of strategy," wrote Barry Strauss in the New Criterion. Strauss went on to comment: "Instead, Hanson focuses on the experience of war, primarily of battle, with considerable attention to the epidemic that devastated Athens in the early years of the conflict. This is an innovative approach and Hanson executes it brilliantly." Despite the fact that numerous accounts of the war have been published, National Review contributor Roger Kimball called Hanson's account "definitive. Engrossing. A masterpiece. It is difficult to marshal all the requisite superlatives for Victor Davis Hanson's new book." In a review for Commentary, Clifford Orwin commented that the book "displays the gifts of Hanson the historian."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Alberta Report, January 7, 2002, Robert Sibley, review of Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, p. 58.

American Historical Review, February, 1991, Edmund M. Burke, review of The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece, pp. 144-145.

American Intelligence Wire, September 9, 2003, Brit Hume, "Interview with Victor Davis Hanson"; January 24, 2005, Jim Angle, "Interview with Victor Davis Hanson."

Booklist, September 1, 1999, Jay Freeman, review of The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny, p. 41; September 1, 2003, Brendan Driscoll, review of Ripples of Battle: How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think, p. 29; September 15, 2005, Jay Freeman, review of A War like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War, p. 21.

Choice, December, 1995, P.B. Harvey, review of The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization, p. 670.

Classical Review, Volume 42, number 2, 1992, John Hackett, "Hoplite Warfare," pp. 174-175.

Classical World, January-February, 1993, Jack Cargill, review of Hoplites: The Classical Greek Battle Experience, p. 235.

Commentary, November, 2005, Clifford Orwin, review of A War like No Other, p. 104.

Economist, January 13, 1990, review of The Western Way of War, pp. 84-85.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1998, Francis Fukuyama, review of Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, pp. 121-122.

Joint Force Quarterly, October, 2005, John Hillen, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 116.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2003, review of Ripples of Battle, p. 949; August 15, 2005, review of A War like No Other, p. 897.

Library Bookwatch, October, 2004, review of Mexifornia: A State of Becoming.

Library Journal, February 1, 1998, Terry Christner, review of Who Killed Homer?, p. 97; August, 1999, Richard S. Nowicki, review of The Soul of Battle, p. 112; June 1, 2001, Scott Walter, review of Bonfire of the Humanities, p. 181; June 15, 2001, Grant A. Fredericksen, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 86; August, 2003, Charles M. Minyard, review of Ripples of Battle, p. 100.

National Review, April 20, 1998, Mary Lefkowitz, review of Who Killed Homer?, pp. 53-55; November 7, 2005, Roger Kimball, review of A War Like No Others, p. 46.

New Criterion, November, 2005, Barry Strauss, review of A War Like no Other, p. 64.

New York Review of Books, July 11, 1996, Bill McKibben, "Some Versions of Pastoral," pp. 42-45.

New York Times Book Review, June 16, 1996, John Hildebrand, "Bitter Harvest," p. 29; November 14, 1999, Bernard Knox, "Scorched Earth," pp. 22-23.

Policy Review, December, 2001, Woody West, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 73.

Publishers Weekly, February 5, 1996, review of Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea, p. 71; February 23, 1998, review of Who Killed Homer?, p. 58; September 27, 1999, review of The Soul of Battle, p. 80; April 30, 2001, review of Bonfire of the Humanities, p. 70; July 16, 2001, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 175; June 23, 2003, review of Ripples of Battle, p. 55; July 18, 2005, review of A War like No Other, p. 196.

Reason, April, 2002, Chris Bray, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 56.

Red Herring, December, 2001, Mark Williams, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 45.

Spectator, November 10, 2001, Michael Rose, review of Carnage and Culture, p. 73.

Times Educational Supplement, September 29, 1989, John Crossland, "Phalanx Fodder," p. 3.

Washington Post Book World, October 1, 1995, Bruce Feller, review of The Other Greeks, p. 13.

Weekly Standard, March 14, 2005, Jonathan Kaye, "The Sage of Fresno: Victor Davis Hanson, Down on the Farm," p. 26.

Wilson Quarterly, summer, 1995, review of The Other Greeks, pp. 86-87.