Victor Davis Hanson We saw on October 7 unprovoked mass slaughter, rape, torture, mutilation, decapitation, and hostage-taking, and agreed that human nature has not changed much since the era of the Aztecs or Macedonians. But the delivery systems of mass death—nuclear, chemical, biological, and the use of artificial intelligence—have evolved far beyond the muscular strength …
Victor Davis Hanson Hernán Cortés was an unlikely conqueror of civilizations. He was born into a middle-class Castilian family, leaving Spain just 12 years after the European discovery of the New World. At 18, the young Cortés planned to get rich, acquire estates, and thus advance in the New World’s Spanish elite hierarchy—in a way …
Victor Davis Hanson Despite bouts of destructive bubonic plague, the pillaging of the city by fellow Christians from Western Europe during the aborted Fourth Crusade (1204), and a tidal wave of Turkish invasions that finally under the Ottoman Sultanate had surrounded Constantinople, the eternal city of 1453 and its vestigial outlands still held out. Under …
Victor Davis Hanson Carthage had fought and lost two Punic wars against Rome (264 BC–201 BC). After the end of the Hannibalic War (201), the city lost almost all its empire, many of its North African alliances, and was forced to pay Rome huge fines. Yet a mere half-century later, by 149 BC, Carthage was …
Victor Davis Hanson As the power of the fifth-century Athenian and fourth-century Spartan empires declined, and after the stunning defeat of Sparta at the battle of Leuctra (371 BC), the most ancient of the Greek city-states Thebes proved re-ascendant. And for more than a decade under the twin leadership of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, it dominated …
VDH UltraThe End of Everything. History Becomes Now? Part Two: Target Thebes, 335 BC Read More »
Victor Davis Hanson I wrote The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation out of curiosity as to why on rare conditions wars don’t just end in the capitulation of the defeated, the occupation or annexation of its homelands, or the victors’ demands to pay reparations or fines.* Rather, they sometimes cease only with …
From an Angry Reader: First of all, I want to say that I am neither a Democrat, nor am I am Republican. I don’t follow party lines when voting. I consider the character, education, and experience of each candidate before casting my vote. Secondly, I do want to say that I am astounded to hear …
Dear professor Hanson, As at first a curious listener to your podcast trying to understand an academic pro-Trump perspective, over the years you have convinced me with your empirical ontology and deep historic and classical knowledge. Many of your arguments against left wing ideology have struck deep, being raised by baby-ber’s in the organic/antroposophic mindset …
Professor Hanson, I am a regular listener to your podcast. I really enjoy your opinion on things and your down to earth character. Although, I am not anyone special or someone with a large following on any platform but, I believe you would be open to a discussion regarding Joe Biden’s mental health. I am not referring to his signs …
Victor Davis Hanson The people yearn for laws to regain their potency. They are sickened by statutes on the books that vaporize upon needed enforcement. They are tired of excuses and inaction. We feel the chaos everywhere from the trivial to the existential. How many times has Joe Biden threatened the Houthis? Is the Red …