Victor Davis Hanson Victor Davis Hanson ( born September 5 , 1953 ) is an American military historian , columnist , former classics professor , and scholar of ancient warfare . He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for " National Review " and other media outlets . He was a professor of classics at California State University , Fresno , and is currently the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University ' s Hoover Institution . Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 , the Claremont Institute ' s Statesmanship Award at its annual Churchill Dinner , and the $ 250 , 000 Bradley prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in 2008 . Hanson is also a farmer ( growing raisin grapes on a family farm in Selma , California ) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism . Early life , education and today . Hanson , who is of Swedish descent , grew up on a family farm at Selma , in the San Joaquin Valley of California . His mother was a lawyer and judge , his father an educator and college administrator . Hanson ' s father and uncle played college football at the College of the Pacific under Amos Alonzo Stagg . Along with his older brother Nils and fraternal twin Alfred , Hanson attended public schools and graduated from Selma High School . Hanson received his B . A . from the University of California , Santa Cruz , in 1975 and his Ph . D . in classics from Stanford University in 1980 . He is a Protestant Christian . Hanson is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Fellow in California Studies at the Claremont Institute . Until recently , he was professor at California State University , Fresno , where he began teaching in 1984 , having created the classics program at that institution . In 1991 Hanson was awarded an American Philological Association ' s Excellence in Teaching Award , which is awarded to undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin . He has been a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University ( 1991 – 92 ) , National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences , Stanford , California ( 1992 – 93 ) , as well as holding the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U . S . Naval Academy , Annapolis , Maryland ( 2002 – 03 ) . He was a visiting professor at Hillsdale College in 2004 , 2006 , 2007 , and 2012 . Hanson writes two weekly columns , one for " National Review " and one syndicated by Tribune Media Services , and has been published in " The New York Times " , " The Wall Street Journal " , " Commentary , " " American Heritage " , " City Journal " , " The American Spectator " , " Policy Review " , the " Claremont Review of Books " , " The New Criterion " , and " The Weekly Standard " , among other publications . In 2006 , he started blogging at PJ Media . In 2007 , he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W . Bush . Political views . Hanson is a registered member of the Democratic Party but a conservative who voted for George W . Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections . He has been described as a neoconservative by some commentators , and has stated that : " I came to support neocon approaches first in the wars against the Taliban and Saddam , largely because I saw little alternative . " Feeling that the current Democratic Party does not have a morally responsible approach to US foreign policy and no longer addresses the concerns of ordinary Americans , Hanson writes : " The Democratic Party reminds me of the Republicans circa 1965 or so – impotent , shrill , no ideas , conspiratorial , reactive , out - of - touch with most Americans , isolationist , and full of embarrassing spokesmen . " Hanson was a strong defender of George W . Bush and his policies , especially the Iraq war . He was also a vocal supporter of Bush ' s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld . Hanson wrote of Rumsfeld that he was : " a rare sort of secretary of the caliber of George Marshall " and a " proud and honest - speaking visionary " whose " hard work and insight are bringing us ever closer to victory " . On the issues pertaining to the constant political turmoil in the Middle East , Hanson emphasises the lack of individual and political freedom in many Middle Eastern nations as a major factor retarding economic , technological and cultural progress . He further relates the root cause of radical Islamic terrorism to insecurities and a need to regain honour and reputation . Iraq War . Hanson believed that the Iraq War was a good and worthwhile undertaking and was , on the whole , a laudable success . However , he stated in 2008 that he " disagreed with many of the decisions made about the Iraq war , " such as the dissolution of the old Iraqi army . Israeli – Arab conflict . In his article " Israel did it " Hanson asks why Israel was being blamed for responding to attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas that shelled Israel for a few months with deadly rockets while the world was watching indifferently . He explains that if there were not so many civilian casualties inside Israel it was not from the lack of trying . Hanson writes : " Israel was to be blamed because its hundreds of air strikes against combatants were lethal , while Hezbollah was to be excused for shooting off thousands of rockets aimed at civilians because of its relative incompetence . " Hanson also questions how it is that " Jimmy Carter , silent about Iran ’ s latest promotion for its planned holocaust , is hawking his latest book — in typical fashion , sorta , kinda alleging that the Israelis are like the South Africans in perpetuating an apartheid state , that they are cruel to many Christians , and , as occupiers , are understandably the targets of suicide bombers and other terrorist killers " . Confrontation with Iran . Hanson has argued that the US should take a much more confrontational stance towards Iran , advocating unilateral responses to the country . On the Hugh Hewitt show in August 2007 , Hanson stated : " We really need to start doing some things beyond talking , and if that is going into Iranian airspace , or buzzing Iranians , or even starting to forget where the border is and taking out some of these training camps , we need to do that and send a message , because they ’ re a paper tiger . They really are . " Writing . Hanson cites the Theban general and statesman Epaminondas , Winston Churchill , and the US generals William Tecumseh Sherman and George Patton as his heroes . In the field of military history , Hanson cites John Keegan as being influential , and shares a mutual admiration with fellow classicist Donald Kagan and the historian Steven Ozment . " Carnage and Culture " . Hanson is perhaps best known for his 2001 book , " Carnage and Culture " , published in some nations ( e . g . Australia ) as " Why the West Has Won " , in which he argued that the military dominance of Western Civilization , beginning with the ancient Greeks , is the result of certain fundamental aspects of Western culture , such as consensual government and individualism . Hanson rejects racial explanations for this military preeminence , and disagrees as well with environmental or geographical explanations such as put forth by Jared Diamond in " Guns , Germs and Steel " . According to Hanson , Western values such as political freedom , capitalism , individualism , democracy , scientific inquiry , rationalism , and open debate form an especially lethal combination when applied to warfare . Non - Western societies can win the occasional victory when warring against a society with these Western values , writes Hanson , but the " Western way of war " will prevail in the long run . Hanson emphasizes that Western warfare is not necessarily more ( or less ) moral than war as practiced by other cultures ; his argument is simply that the " Western way of war " is unequalled in its devastation and decisiveness . " Carnage and Culture " examines nine battles throughout history , each of which is used to illustrate a particular aspect of Western culture that Hanson believes contributes to the dominance of Western warfare . The battles or campaigns recounted ( with themes in parenthesis ) are the Battle of Salamis ( 480 BC ; free citizens ) , the Battle of Gaugamela ( 331 BC ; the decisive battle of annihilation ) , the Battle of Cannae ( 216 BC ; civic militarism ) , the Battle of Tours / Poitiers ( 732 ; infantry ) , the Battle of Tenochtitlan ( 1521 ; technology and reason ) , the Battle of Lepanto ( 1571 ; capitalism ) , the Battle of Rorke ' s Drift ( 1879 ; discipline ) , the Battle of Midway ( 1942 ; individualism ) , and the Tet Offensive ( 1968 ; dissent ) . Though " Carnage and Culture " appeared before the September 11 , 2001 attacks , its message that the " Western way of war " will ultimately prevail made the book a best - seller in the wake of those events . Immediately after 9 / 11 , " Carnage and Culture " was re - issued with a new afterword by Hanson in which he explicitly stated that the United States government would win its " War on Terror " for the reasons stated in the book . United States education and classical studies . Hanson co - authored the book " Who Killed Homer ? " with John Heath . This book explores the issue of how classical education has declined in the US and what might be done to restore it to its former place . This is important , according to Hanson and Heath , because knowledge of the classical Greeks and Romans is necessary to fully understand Western culture . To begin a discussion along these lines the authors state , " The answer to why the world is becoming Westernized goes all the way back to the wisdom of the Greeks — reason enough why we must not abandon the study of our heritage " . Hanson and Heath blame the academic classicists themselves for the decline , accusing them of becoming so infected with political correctness and postmodern thinking , not to mention egoism and money - grubbing ( grants , visiting professorships , conference - hopping , promotion based on unreadable publications ) , that they have lost sight of what Hanson and Heath feel the classics truly represent . They say it this way , " the study of Greek in the last twenty years became a profession , a tiny world - - but a world of sorts nonetheless - - of jets , conferences , publicity , jargon , and perks " .