Greek Yeomen in California

How the realist historian Victor Davis Hanson fails to see the idealism in his vision of America

Few fields have suffered from the “dead white men” blanket criticism more harshly than the classics. I’d argue that in the past decade, we’ve made great progress to extol historiographers and historians from more diverse backgrounds, compared to other similar disciplines. Most of the outside observers who still harbor this criticism will not be happy until Homer is no longer required reading in any schools. Still, there is work to be done. The British Museum still holds the Elgin Marbles away from their home at the Parthenon, and the attitudes of previous generations refuse to die out. All we can do is wait until those in charge retire. In the meantime, it’s worth reflecting on the contributions of the figureheads of recent history to see whether their oeuvre is vital enough to merit overlooking their flawed beliefs. Many have spoken about Heinrich Schliemann, his reliance on dumb luck, and his destructive behavior. Instead, I’d like to focus on a more recent blemish on the record. 

If you’ve read any scholarship on Thucydides, you probably know the name Victor Davis Hanson. The “mythos” behind how he portrays himself is that he worked for 20 years as a professor but the universities got too “left-wing” for him, so he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and started a career as a political commentator from the ground up. I’d personally like to see his tax returns before and after that decision to determine its veracity. Nevertheless, in the following years he became a prominent figure in the world of pop history. His most prolific book, A War Like No Other, is difficult to find fault with: unlike Herodotus’ blending of myth and history (where historians bicker over what events fall into either category), Thucydides’ account is of purely mortal dealings. Indeed, both the book and its author are unique. Because of the absence of divine intervention, the author instead has to come up with human causes for each action. If people are the root of every decision in this war, it must naturally follow that the blame for each death. Some political scientists divide opinion here: on the one hand, Thucydides is seen as a realist who thinks war is an inevitable tragedy that occurs when competing powers grow too large for their own borders (commonly referred to as the “Thucydides Trap”); on the other hand, others view the work as a broad condemnation of warfare because the suffering it brings outweighs any potential profit. Judging by his support of the Iraq War from its outset, Hanson counts himself among the former, while the graphic depictions of the horrors of war push me towards the latter. Of all the books written about the controversies in the classics that I disagree with, this is the most compelling that I have read. In the future it might be prudent to detail both sides of this problem, but this article is more about the man than his theories.