Author: victorhanson

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture.

The Fog of Battle

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What comes around, goes…

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Even in daytime fighters do not perceive anything; indeed, nobody knows anything more than what is going on right around himself.

So the fifth-century B.C. military historian Thucydides commented on the confusion of battle on the heights above Syracuse (413 B.C.), and, indirectly, on the inability of historians such as himself to sort out the conflicting accounts provided by veterans of all battles. Continue reading “The Fog of Battle” →

Four Months in Vietnam

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Or how to misdirect public attention.

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

Everyone knows magicians use misdirection to make their illusions work. While one hand distracts us the other is pulling the egg or coin from its hiding place. Continue reading “Four Months in Vietnam” →

Welcome Back, Europe

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Reentering history’s arena.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The scheduled partial U.S. troop withdrawals from Europe were long overdue; some of us had become shrill and hoarse in calling for them over the past few years. Continue reading “Welcome Back, Europe” →

Challenging Darwinian Fundamentalism

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by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

Uncommon Dissent. Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing, ed. William A. Dembski (ISI Books) Continue reading “Challenging Darwinian Fundamentalism” →

On Loathing Bush

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It’s not about what he does.

by Victor Davis Hanson

For now Americans seem to be split 50-50 over the reelection of George W. Bush. Such a hotly contested election is hardly new. We saw races just as close in 1960, 1968, and 1976. Continue reading “On Loathing Bush” →

If the Dead Could Talk

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They’d teach us a thing or two about war.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The last two weeks I have been following the route of the American Army’s drive from Normandy into Germany in 1944-5. Continue reading “If the Dead Could Talk” →

A Return to Childhood: The New Immaturity

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

I would never have imagined that journalists, academics, actors, artists, and the intelligentsia in general would have so opposed the end of dictatorship and promotion of democracy abroad. Continue reading “A Return to Childhood: The New Immaturity” →

Embedded and Elitist Left

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The Long March through Schools of Journalism

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

If you want a good example of the “long march through the institutions” undertaken by sixties leftists after they left school, look no further than the career of Orville Schell, dean of Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Continue reading “Embedded and Elitist Left” →

If the Dead Could Talk

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They’s teach us a thing or two about war.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The last two weeks I have been following the route of the American Army’s drive from Normandy into Germany in 1944-5. It is quite something to visit Aachen, Mainz, the Hürtzen forest, Bastogne, Omaha Beach, and Pointe du Hoc, and then juxtapose such visits with the daily pabulum in the International Herald Tribune, CNN, and the European dailies. Continue reading “If the Dead Could Talk” →

Hedging on Iraq

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Which side will Americans choose to be on?

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

What exactly do we think is going on in Iraq? The Democratic platform hedges on the war, suggesting that reasonable people can argue over the need for last year’s intervention — as if Dennis Kucinich and Joe Lieberman have only slight disagreements about our involvement. Continue reading “Hedging on Iraq” →