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).

Filter By:

Topic

Type

Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

San Francisco: One Sick Sanctuary City

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, July 19, 2015

As is true daily in other sanctuary cities, San Francisco rolled the dice with someone else’s safety, resulting in the murder of Kate Steinle.

Victor Davis Hanson
Analysis and Commentary

Contrary To Progressive Belief, Human Nature Can't Be Changed

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Human nature is unchanging, predictable -- and can be dangerous if ignored. Five-time deportee and seven-time felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an unauthorized immigrant, recently was arrested in San Francisco for the murder of an innocent passerby, Kate Steinle.

Analysis and Commentary

The Four Horsemen Of A Looming Apocalypse

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The U.S. and its allies are faced with four major threats, and they are as diverse and yet as akin as the proverbial apocalyptic horsemen.

Analysis and Commentary

Want Him To Enforce Laws That Would Have Kept Kate Steinle Alive? Governor Jerry Brown Thinks You’re ‘Troglodyte’

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Monday, July 13, 2015

Let's examine the issues rationally, and see who actually understood the Age of Reason.

Analysis and Commentary

Disregard For The Law Is America's Greatest Threat

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Barbarians at the gate usually don't bring down once-successful civilizations. Nor does climate change. Even mass epidemics like the plague that decimated sixth-century Byzantium do not necessarily destroy a culture.

What a shock! Obama is who he said he was.
Analysis and Commentary

What Obama Has Taught Us

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Obama has built a legacy, all right: appeasement, staggering debt, racial animosity...

World Puzzle
Analysis and Commentary

Is The World Becoming Fed Up?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, July 5, 2015

Faster, please: A great pushback is awakening here and abroad, but its timing, nature, and future remain mysterious.

Putin
Analysis and Commentary

Putin’s Recipe For Power

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Newsweek
Thursday, July 2, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin said something in 2005 that is now commonly footnoted to explain his latest aggressions. Putin was not necessarily lamenting the collapse of Soviet Communism

Analysis and Commentary

We Are All Californians Now

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Wednesday, July 1, 2015

California keeps reminding us what has gone astray with America in recent years.

Analysis and Commentary

Progressive Mass Hysteria

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Tuesday, June 30, 2015

One of the most harrowing incidents in the Athenian historian Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War is the democratic debate over the rebellious subject state of Mytilene on the distant island of Lesbos. Thucydides uses his riveting account of the Athenian argument over the islanders’ fate to warn his readers of the fickle nature of democracy.

Pages