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 and the New Civility

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Journal
Wednesday, April 21, 2010

During the Bush years a dangerously heated rhetoric became commonplace. Now, lo! a new age has dawned...

War and Humility

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Hoover Digest
Wednesday, April 21, 2010

War is ever familiar, yet ever unpredictable. Those who reflexively turn away from war will never understand it. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Analysis and Commentary

An Age of Untruth

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Monday, April 19, 2010

Five Lies We Live With...

Analysis and Commentary

Are We Still an Ally of Israel? Who Knows?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Monday, April 19, 2010

In a recent Gallup poll, 85 percent of Republicans and only 48 percent of Democrats supported Israel rather that the Palestinians. What to make of it...

Analysis and Commentary

How Could We Be So Stupid? Let Us Count the Ways

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Friday, April 16, 2010

We are going to pile up another $3 trillion in national debt in just the first two years of the Obama administration. If the annual deficit should sink below $1.5 trillion, it will be called fiscal sobriety.

Analysis and Commentary

So What Happened to Iraq?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Thursday, April 15, 2010

Looking back, almost all of what once passed for conventional wisdom has been proven wrong.

Analysis and Commentary

Things to Ponder

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Thursday, April 15, 2010

After some 15 months, we may legitimately monitor the much-heralded reset-button foreign policy, putting aside soaring rhetoric, photo-ops, and summits to simply ask: Have things improved?

Analysis and Commentary

Chilling or Funny?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The recent televised exchange between Russia's President Medvedev and George Stephanopoulos concerning Medvedev's impressions of Obama has been making the rounds recently, largely in the context of "Isn't it a relief to have a thinking president who is respected again?"

Analysis and Commentary

It Is Not the Bomb, but Who Has It

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

It is fine and good for President Obama to assemble leaders to join forces to track down fissionable material that might get into the hands of terrorists and to encourage non-proliferation. Few presidents could have rounded them all up in one place.

Analysis and Commentary

Mr. Obama’s Nowhere Discussions

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

President Obama could rather easily restore his credibility. But to do so, he would have to stop talking and start making hard policy decisions.

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