Victor Davis Hanson

World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Hanson examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. He argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising.

Who Killed Homer? argues that if we lose our knowledge of the Greeks, we lose our understanding of who we are. With straightforward advice and informative reading lists, the authors present a highly useful primer for anyone who wants more knowledge of Classics, and thus of the beauty and perils of our own culture. For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, art, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture is so uniquely dynamic and why its tenets of democracy, capitalism, materialism, personal freedom, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. The failure of today's Classicists has meant that formal study of the origins of Western Culture is disappearing from American life at precisely the time when it is most needed to explain, guide, and warn the public about both the wonders and dangers of their own culture. This book explains what has been killed, who did it and why - and how we might still save Classics and the Greeks for another generation.

"The Western Way of War draws from an extraordinary range of sources to describe what actually took place on the battlefield. It is the first study to explore the actual mechanics of classical Greek battle from the vantage point of the infantryman - the brutal spear-thrusting, the difficulty of fighting in heavy bronze armor that made it hard to see and hear as well as to move, and the fear.". "This account of what happened on the killing fields of the ancient Greeks shows that their style of armament and battle was contrived to minimize time and loss of life by making the battle experience decisive and appalling. Linking this new style of fighting to the rise of constitutional government, Hanson raises new issues and questions old assumptions about the history of war."--BOOK JACKET.

"For generations, scholars have focused on the Greek city-state and its brilliant cosmopolitan culture as the ultimate source of the Western tradition in literature, philosophy, and politics. This passionate book leads us outside the city walls to the countryside, where the majority of the Greek citizenry lived, to find the true source of the cultural wealth of Greek civilization. Victor Hanson shows that the "Greek revolution" was not the rise of a free and democratic urban culture, but rather the historic innovation of the independent family farm."--BOOK JACKET.

A master historian explores how war has shaped our societies--and how societies shape warfare--from Ancient Greece to the present day, in a sweeping survey that offers profound lessons for facing today's conflicts.

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In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the United States--and an extremely successful president. Trump alone saw a political opportunity in defending the working people of America's interior whom the coastal elite of both parties had come to scorn, Hanson argues. And Trump alone had the instincts and energy to pursue this opening to victory, dismantle a corrupt old order, and bring long-overdue policy changes at home and abroad. We could not survive a series of presidencies as volatile as Trump's. But after decades of drift, America needs the outsider Trump to do what normal politicians would not and could not do.

"Most of human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, or tribes. The concept of the "citizen," an idea we take for granted, is historically quite rare-and was, until recently, amongst America's most profoundly cherished ideals. But without shock treatment, warns historian and conservative political commentator Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it for well over two centuries may soon vanish. In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the forces that have brought us to the twilight of American citizenship, and led to the deeply fractured politics of the present era. Over the last half-century, numerous forces from both above and below have conspired to undermine the value we place in the idea of citizenship-and our vigilance in protecting it. To be self-governing, citizens must be economically autonomous, but the evisceration of the middle class and the rise of inequality have made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Citizenship exists within delineated borders-but open borders and the elite concept of "global citizenship" have rendered meaningless the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Citizenship relies on the renunciation of tribal identity in favor of the state, but identity politics have eradicated the idea of a collective civic sense of self. A vastly expanded unelected bureaucracy has overwhelmed the power of elected officials, thereby destroying the sovereign power of the citizen. Progressive academics and activists lay siege to the institutions and traditions of constitutional citizenship. As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 has ripped away our complacency about the future of our most cherished ideals. Americans are forced to confront the fragility of citizenship-indeed, the fragility of our nation. But this calamitous year may also teach Americans to rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours"--

In this sweeping and deeply imagined historical novel, acclaimed classicist Victor Davis Hanson re-creates the battles of one of the greatest generals of ancient Greece, Epaminondas. At the Battle of Leuktra, his Thebans crushed the fearsome army of Sparta that had enslaved its neighbors for two centuries. We follow these epic historical events through the eyes of Mêlon, a farmer who has left his fields to serve with Epaminondas-swept up, against his better judgment, in the fever to spread democracy even as he yearns to return to his pastoral hillside. With a scholar's depth of knowledge and a novelist's vivid imagination, Hanson re-creates the ancient world down to its intimate details-from the weight of a spear in a soldier's hand to the peculiar camaraderie of a slave and master who go into battle side by side.

From the Preface... ... I have deliberately concentrated on those West-East fault lines that emphasize the singular lethality of Western culture at war in comparison to other traditions that grew up in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. These valid generalizations should not imply that at times there were not real differences among particular European states themselves or that Western and non-Western cultures were either monolithic or always at odds with each other. And while I discuss larger issues of government, religion, and economy, my primary aim is to explain Western military power, not the general nature and evolution of Western civilization at large. This is not a book, then, written for academic specialists. Instead, I have tried to offer a synthesis of Western society at war for the general reader across some 2,500 years of history that concentrates on general trends, rather than an original work of primary research within a defined historical period. I have used formal scholarly citations in parentheses in the text only for the longer direct quotations—although detailed information concerning factual material is derived from primary sources and secondary books and articles discussed at the conclusion of the book.

"Why do men fight? What motivates an ordinary citizen to burn and kill? What, in the end, motivates an army to win?"--BOOK JACKET. "In The Soul of Battle, Victor Davis Hanson, answers these questions in a new and startling way. Hanson offers three incredible stories - the sagas of history's greatest marches - that coalesce into a single powerful theory of men and war. Each story involves a democratic army pulled together on short notice, which marched deep into enemy territory to overthrow a government whose morality was fundamentally repugnant to its own. Each army stunned the world by covering many miles and capturing huge numbers of its demoralized foes. In all three cases, Hanson argues, conviction (more than firepower) made the difference against long odds. Hanson's conclusion has far-reaching consequences in our convictionless times: right makes might."--BOOK JACKET.

World War II is one of those rare events in history whose retelling will forever guide us toward a deeper understanding of freedom and tyranny; honor and infamy; the roles of prudence, folly, and chance in human affairs; and man’s capacity for courage, endurance, and sacrifice. These nine essays by leading World War II historians, adapted from presentations given at a Hillsdale College seminar, are written with an eye to these timeless and valuable lessons. Authors include Stephen E. Ambrose, Martin Gilbert, Victor Davis Hanson, and Gerhard L. Weinberg.-Amazon