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Column One in the L.A. Times is devoted to a profile of Victor Davis Hanson, the Cal State Fresno classicist whose writings on the war against terrorism, immigration and other topics dear to conservatives have made him a favorite of the Bush White House. For his next book, on the Peloponnesian War, he just got a $500,000 advance -- more than for his 14 other books combined, and enough to quit his day job.
Writes roving Times correspondent Rone Tempest:
Hanson will leave Cal State Fresno next summer as one of America's leading conservative writers, most prominently showcased in his weekly online column in the like-minded National Review...It's not hard to understand how Hanson has become an intellectual bulwark of administration foreign policy, given his conviction that nothing less than the future of Western civilization depends on our cleareyed recognition of the menace posed by militant Islamic forces.
"We haven't had enemies this antithetical to the United States in a long, long time," Hanson said several days later over coffee in San Francisco, where he was a guest speaker at the Commonwealth Club. "Take your pick of the Western agenda. Women's rights? They want to go back to the Dark Ages. Homosexual rights? They want to kill them. Democracy? They don't believe in it. Religious tolerance? You're dead if you're not a Muslim. Technology? They don't like it."
[fast forward]
Hanson grew up in Selma, a flyspeck San Joaquin Valley farm town 19 miles southwest of Fresno where his family, descendants of Swedish immigrants, has raised raisins and other fruit since the mid-19th century. Hanson himself once dreamed of a life producing "the best raisins and the best fruit in the world."
After getting his doctorate in classics from Stanford University in 1980, Hanson eschewed academia to return to Selma to make his life as a family farmer.
But the farm fantasy foundered in the new world of corporate agriculture and globalized markets. "I learned the hard way that all the things that used to be noble, physical hard work and creating a real product, somebody overseas could do cheaper," said Hanson, who has written two books on the decline of family farming.
I disagree with Ted. Hanson for me is one of the few stimulating minds around. Hitchens is another. Both men can make me furious, but both write well and are original.
Posted by: Roger L. Simon at February 25, 2004 10:55 AMI don't want to pick nits with LAT proofreaders, but do you "raise"
raisins, as Tempest says, or do you grow them?
Just wondering.
As to Hanson being a fraud, as far as I know,
he wasn't forced to give up a prize or resign
from teaching like the widely applauded
and much caressed Michael Bellesisles.
What has Hanson ever said that wasn't
supported by facts?
I disagree with Ted that Hanson is an intellectual fraud. I have found Hanson's classics-related books such as "The Other Greeks" and "The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece" to be well-researched and also well-written. Of course, my undergrad degree was in classical studies, so I tend to be interested in these (somewhat arcane) subjects.
I will say this about Hanson: he certainly has his biases, and appears to be comfortable in the selective use of evidence from classical times to support his arguments about modern politics. As someone who has actually studied classics, I am not always comfortable with these uses and adaptations. That's not to say that Hanson shouldn't have his biases; he's certainly entitled to them. On the other hand, it's good to be aware of their existence. For example, when he speaks of ancient Greek democracy, it's important to realize that such an animal bears very little resemblance to what a politically aware American would define "democracy" as today, excluding as it did most categories of people we'd expect to be included, such as women and non-property holders.
It's also important to know that for much of the evidence from antiquity which Hanson marshals in favor of his arguments about modern politics, there are sometimes just as many pieces of evidence *contra* Hanson's argument at hand. This doesn't make Hanson a fraud, but a skilled polemicist whose selective use of evidence in my opinion would have made him a fine lawyer.
And, like Hanson or not, his prose is usually superlative, of the quality that comes from having learned to read and write the classical languages. If you need to be persuaded of this, pick up a translation of Demosthenes' Phillipics or just about anything by Cicero. You'll see some resemblances.
Posted by: The Irrationalist at February 25, 2004 02:57 PMYou grow grapes. You dehydrate them into raisins.
Posted by: Cathy Seipp at February 25, 2004 03:12 PMKevin, not to be picky but there's "David" in the subject.
Also, surprised no one has mentioned, "Mexifornia," Hanson's latest and by some accountants most personal book on immigration.
Posted by: scott at February 25, 2004 03:29 PMThanks Scott. I read right over that errant 'd' about a dozen times. His name is now the same in every mention. :)
Posted by: Kevin Roderick at February 25, 2004 03:38 PMI don't think Hanson is a fraud based on his books on classics, I think he is a fraud because of the way he twists that fine work to suit his present day ideas. He gives his own great work the short shrift by forcing false analogies and comparisons. I did not mean to impugn his past or current work in classics.
Posted by: ted at February 25, 2004 10:54 PMVictor Hanson's edition of Thucydides' "The History of the Peloponnesian War" was a distinct achievement. However, Hanson is missing the central point made by Thucydides: democracies are vulnerable to demogoguery, and like Athens' unnecessary and self-defeating invasion of Sicily in 415 B.C., the United States' rush to war in Iraq was propelled by the exaggerations of its leaders.
Posted by: David the Obscure at February 26, 2004 12:56 PM
...his prose is usually superlative, of the quality that comes from having learned to read and write the classical languages.
That really made me laugh, thanks. I guess "the quality that comes from having learned to read and write the classical languages" isn't contagious.
Posted by: joseph at February 27, 2004 07:05 AMThat really made me laugh, thanks. I guess "the quality that comes from having learned to read and write the classical languages" isn't contagious.
I don't recall claiming it was . . . but after a reading of your web offerings, I can only take your comment as the highest praise.
p.s. You're welcome!
Posted by: The Irrationalist at February 27, 2004 01:14 PM
of LA Observed
I think Hanson is a decent writer but somewhat of an intellectual fraud. He takes his biases and uses them as the yoke for his research and ideas. Not uncommon, but not worth reading unless you agree with him, and in my mind that's a fatal flaw if you really want to be taken seriously.
Posted by: Ted at February 25, 2004 10:47 AM