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 hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books, the latest of which is The Case for Trump (Basic Books, 2019). His other books include The Second World Wars (Basic Books, 2017); 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.

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

Obama Fails to Square the Illegal-Immigration Circle

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Friday, July 2, 2010

The subtext of the speech was politics of the very sort the text often deplored. Obama has to square a circle...

Analysis and Commentary

(Even a Few) Words Matter

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Real Clear Politics
Thursday, July 1, 2010

Sometimes deterrence against aggression is lost with just a few unfortunate words or a relatively minor gesture...

Analysis and Commentary

Where Did the Tea-Party Anger Come From?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Workforce Magazine
Tuesday, June 29, 2010

I think we all know why the Tea Party movement arose — and why even the polls do not quite reflect the growing generic anger at incumbents in general, and our elites in particular...

Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow

The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern

by Victor Davis Hansonvia C-Span2 Book TV
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Victor Davis Hanson, the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, discusses his recent book of essays on war and history on C-SPAN2’s BookTV.

Analysis and Commentary

Arrogant Obama presidency plays out like a Greek tragedy

by Victor Davis Hansonvia OregonLive.com
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Do you remember candidate Barack Obama offering his hope-and-change platitudes in front of the fake Greek columns during the Democratic convention...

Analysis and Commentary

Rolling Stone, Michael Hastings, and the McChrystalites—Sort of Deserve Each Other

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Friday, June 25, 2010

The Washington Post publishes a long list of fact check requests sent to Gen. McChrystal before the Michael Hastings’ interview occurred…

Analysis and Commentary

Saving Obama from Himself

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review Online
Thursday, June 24, 2010

Obama’s campaign attacks against Bush now apply to his presidency...

Analysis and Commentary

A McChrystal Endnote

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Obama had no choice but to do what he did, and the wise Petraeus move was obviously a mitigating factor...

Analysis and Commentary

McChrystal’s Tragedy

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Where to start? Here’s is an update on the entire mess...McChrystal, in fact, is a brave and heroic figure deserving our respect. But among friends and with a mole in his midst, he still himself deprecated the commander in chief...

Analysis and Commentary

The McChrystal Mess

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

No one wants to see McChrystal go, but senior officers and their staffers simply cannot ridicule civilian overseers, even if casually and in jest...

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