Victor Davis Hanson

Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow
Awards and Honors:
Statesmanship Award from the Claremont Institute
(2006)
Biography: 

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; his focus is classics and military history.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), the annual Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Visiting Fellow in History at Hillsdale College (2004–), the Visiting Shifron Professor of Military History at the US Naval Academy (2002–3),and the William Simon Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University (2010).

In 1991 he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award. He received the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism (2002), presented the Manhattan's Institute's Wriston Lecture (2004), and was awarded the National Humanities Medal (2007) and the Bradley Prize (2008).

Hanson is the author of some 250 articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-three books, including The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - from Ancient Greece to Iraq (Bloomsbury 2013); The End of Sparta (Bloomsbury, 2011); The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern (Bloomsbury, 2010); Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome (ed.) (Princeton, 2010); The Other Greeks (California, 1998); The Soul of Battle (Free Press, 1999); Carnage and Culture (Doubleday, 2001); Ripples of Battle (Doubleday, 2003); A War Like No Other (Random House, 2005); The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf, 1989; 2nd paperback ed., University of California Press, 2000); The Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Cassell, 1999; paperback ed., 2001); and Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (Encounter, 2003), as well as two books on family farming, Fields without Dreams (Free Press, 1995) and The Land Was Everything (Free Press, 1998). Currently, he is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and a weekly columnist for the National Review Online and PJ Media.

Hanson received a BA in classics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1975), was a fellow at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens (1977–78), and received his PhD in classics from Stanford University (1980).

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Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

Moral Equivalence In The Middle East

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review Online
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
The West has developed a dangerous concern for ‘proportionality.’
Analysis and Commentary

Barack Churchill, 1939

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, October 18, 2015

Winston Churchill, well before he became prime minister in May 1940, was busy all through 1939 prompting the British government to prepare for war — and then, as first lord of the Admiralty, helping to direct it once it broke out. But what if Churchill had been Barack Obama? What would Britain’s foremost opponent of appeasement have been like?

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Freedom’s Creative Clamor

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Hoover Digest
Friday, October 16, 2015

Free speech has given us cranks, crazies, alarmists—and some of history’s best ideas. Why we must defend this most basic of rights.

Featured

Are Sanctuary Cities The New Confederates?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Thursday, October 15, 2015

There are now 340 sanctuary cities — and the list is growing. All of them choose to ignore federal immigration law by refusing to report detained undocumented immigrants to federal authorities under most circumstances.

Analysis and Commentary

The Road To Middle East Perdition

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Monday, October 12, 2015

From reset to the Iran deal, Obama’s mistakes are so comprehensive they almost look deliberate.

Featured

A Liberal's Ten Commandments

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, October 11, 2015

To better advance their causes, liberals should follow these modest Ten Commandments to live the rather "progressive" lives that they advocate for the rest of us.

Featured

Beware Putin And His 'Anti-Hitler Coalition'

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Thursday, October 8, 2015

Contrary to the principles of American foreign policy of the last 70 years, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry tacitly invited Russia to "help" monitor things in the Middle East.

Featured

Why The Iran Deal Ensures War

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Iran agreement will remake the Middle East — for the worse.

Analysis and Commentary

Obama: Nihilist Or Just Incompetent?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, October 4, 2015

Who knows; the only mystery left is how much damage will the last gasp of 2016 bring?

Analysis and Commentary

Pope Burnout

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Thursday, October 1, 2015

Unpopular though it may be to say so, I, for one, grew exhausted by the nonstop pronouncements/commentaries of Pope Francis. The spiritual leader of 1 billion Catholics — roughly half of the world’s Christians — Francis just completed a high-profile, endlessly publicized visit to the United States.

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