New Releases by Victor Davis Hanson

A New York Times bestseller and “a brilliant and bracing analysis” (Mark R. Levin) of Donald Trump, his presidency, and his vision of America’s future—now updated for 2024 In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become an extremely successful president. Trump alone saw a political opportunity in defending the working people of America’s interior whom the coastal elite of both parties had come to scorn, Hanson argues. And Trump alone had the instincts and energy to pursue this opening to victory, dismantle a corrupt old order, and bring long-overdue policy changes at home and abroad. After decades of drift, America needed the outsider Trump to do what normal politicians would not and could not do. Now updated for the 2024 election with a comprehensive new introduction, this is the essential book on what Donald Trump means for America.

In this “gripping account of catastrophic defeat” (Barry Strauss), a New York Times–bestselling historian charts how and why some societies chose to utterly destroy their foes, and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time “In The End of Everything, Hanson tells compelling and harrowing stories of how civilizations perished. He helps us consider contemporary affairs in light of that history, think about the unthinkable, and recognize the urgency of trying to prevent our own demise.” — H. R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds War can settle disputes, topple tyrants, and bend the trajectory of civilization—sometimes to the breaking point. From Troy to Hiroshima, moments when war has ended in utter annihilation have reverberated through the centuries, signaling the end of political systems, cultures, and epochs. Though much has changed over the millennia, human nature remains the same. Modern societies are not immune from the horror of a war of extinction. In The End of Everything, military historian Victor Davis Hanson narrates a series of sieges and sackings that span the age of antiquity to the conquest of the New World to show how societies descend into barbarism and obliteration. In the stories of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and Tenochtitlan, he depicts war’s drama, violence, and folly. Highlighting the naivete that plagued the vanquished and the wrath that justified mass slaughter, Hanson delivers a sobering call to contemporary readers to heed the lessons of obliteration lest we blunder into catastrophe once again.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Case for Trump explains the decline and fall of the once cherished idea of American citizenship. Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare—and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish. In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution. As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

Part history, part political analysis and part memoir, Mexifornia is an intensely personal work by one of our most important writers. Hanson is perhaps best known for his military histories and especially his social commentary about America and its response to terror after 9/11, but he is also a fifth-generation Californian who runs a family farm in the Central Valley and has written eloquent elegies on the decline of the small farm, Fields Without Dreams and The Land Was Everything. Like those books, Mexifornia ponders what has changed in California over the last quarter-century. This time, Hanson''s concern is how the state, the Southwest more broadly, and indeed the entire nation have been altered by America''s hemorrhaging borders, and how our disordered immigration policies are perhaps most harmful to the Mexican immigrants who come seeking a better life.

Nell''aprile del 404 a.C. l''ammiraglio spartano Lisandro condusse finalmente la sua immensa flotta nell''odiato porto ateniese del Pireo, ponendo fine a quella che è passata alla storia come «guerra del Peloponneso». La città di Atene, un tempo potentissima e ora invasa da profughi, ridotta allo stremo dalla malattia, dalla fame e da ventisette anni di guerra, era alla mercé degli spartani. Una fine assolutamente inconcepibile solo tre decenni prima, quando Pericle promise la vittoria della democrazia. Non poteva certo immaginare che la sua patria avrebbe perso 80.000 cittadini per la peste o 500 navi affondate tra l''Egeo e la Sicilia. Come si era potuta verificare una situazione così catastrofica? In questo che è forse il suo lavoro più importante, lo storico militare Victor Davis Hanson risponde concentrandosi - come già Tucidide, la nostra principale fonte sulla guerra del Peloponneso - sul «fattore umano» dello scontro. Come hanno combattuto gli ateniesi sulla terraferma, nelle città, nelle campagne della Grecia? Come è stato questo orrendo conflitto per coloro che vi hanno seminato e incontrato la morte? È così che la sanguinosa guerra civile che 2400 anni fa vide fronteggiarsi quasi tutte le popolazioni di lingua greca ci appare non più come un evento bellico sepolto nelle nebbie di un passato lontanissimo, ma come uno dei combattimenti più feroci della storia, non solo antica, nel quale si alternarono battaglie convenzionali, atti di terrorismo, rivoluzioni, genocidi. Un modello «balcanico» tremendamente attuale che ancora ha molto da dire all''uomo del XXI secolo, se è vero che, come afferma Hanson, «c''è un elemento comune nella guerra, il totale coinvolgimento dell''essere umano, che trascende il tempo e lo spazio».

America is embroiled in ideological conflict, with the opposing partisan bulwarks of the Left and the Right widening a chasm that threatens the unity of our Republic. The tumult in Washington has radiated into our universities, homes, and relationships -- from constitutional threats; to the imposition on free speech; to a sprawling, unelected administrative state, America is at a tipping point. Fortunately, Encounter''s Broadside and Intelligence series offer indispensable ammunition for intelligent debate on these critical issues of our time. With a staunch allegiance to the truth, these timely essays resurrect 18th-century pamphleteering to take on everything from the failures of the redistribution of wealth, to the twisting of Title IX, to the dangers of the increasingly unchecked media bias. Saving the Republic, a collection of Encounter interventions, is a necessary resource of critical thought and commonsense on how to safeguard the promise of America. Saving the Republic is edited by Roger Kimball with contributions from Jay Cost, Philip Hamburger, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, David B. Kopel, Greg Lukianoff, Andrew C. McCarthy, Jared Meyer, James Piereson, Claudia Rosett, Avik Roy, Robert L. Shibley, Michael Walsh, and Kevin D. Williamson. Together these authors make the definitive case for liberty and democratic capitalism at a time when they are under siege from the resurgence of collectivist sentiment.

A "breathtakingly magisterial" account of World War II by America''s preeminent military historian (Wall Street Journal) World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya. The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, bestselling author Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war''s origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory. An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history''s deadliest conflict.

Si narra che, quando gli fu suggerito di attaccare i persiani di notte per coglierli impreparati, Alessandro Magno rispose sdegnato: «La strada che indichi è quella dei banditi e dei ladri, il cui unico fine è l''inganno. Preferisco rammaricarmi della sorte avversa anziché provar vergogna per la mia vittoria». Il grande condottiero macedone dimostrava così di aver interiorizzato la cultura greca anche nell''ethos disperato e fiero della battaglia campale. Perché l''arte occidentale della guerra, spiega Victor Davis Hanson in questo saggio ormai classico, si fonda sulla ricerca dello scontro diretto di fanteria, terribile e risolutivo. Un''invenzione greca, tramandata dall''epica di Omero e dalle storie di Tucidide e Senofonte. La battaglia campale non era infatti una pratica comune, nelle guerre antiche, spesso più simili a una guerriglia episodica e selvaggia. Proprio per evitare gli assalti e la devastazione di campi e vigneti, i Greci costruirono una diversa idea di guerra, che si legava a doppio filo con l''essenza stessa della libertà e della democrazia: ogni uomo libero era disposto a correre il rischio di morire in poche ore nel cozzo brutale di lance e scudi, anziché lasciare le proprie terre e i propri cari in ostaggio delle sortite, delle razzie e degli incendi. È impossibile, allora, ragionare di questa idea di guerra senza calarsi nei panni del soldato semplice, dell''oplite schierato nella falange sul far della battaglia. Hanson non si limita infatti ad analizzare la struttura sociale delle città-stato, a ricostruire le tattiche o descrivere nel dettaglio le pesanti armi e gli equipaggiamenti. Riesce invece a disciogliere la storia nel racconto, facendoci rivivere in prima persona quel momento: respiriamo l''eccitazione e la paura, la solidarietà tra compagni di linea e la ferocia del corpo a corpo, ma anche i suoni, gli odori, la fatica... Tutta la dimensione umana dello scontro, tutto il peso di quell''ethos e di quel sacrificio. L''arte occidentale della guerra sopravviverà ai Greci e ad Alessandro Magno, perseguitando come un mito e un fantasma tutta la storia militare occidentale, dalle crociate a Napoleone, dal secondo conflitto mondiale fino alla disfatta americana del Vietnam, quando una nuova e diversa guerriglia segnerà la crisi e forse la fine di quel modello, l''illusione di una guerra nobile, di una vittoria pulita e priva di vergogna. «Un piccolo capolavoro di sapienza e stile.» ¿ The Economist «Un libro travolgente.» ¿ Christopher Hitchens «La Guerra di tipo occidentale, che i greci concepivano come una prova del fuoco, ha portato i loro discendenti nell''abisso dell''olocausto. La meditazione brillante e commovente di Victor Davis Hanson può contribuire, speriamo, ad allontanarci da quella voragine.» ¿ John Keegan

With humor, lucidity, and unflinching rigor, the acclaimed authors of Who Killed Homer? and Plagues of the Mind unsparingly document the degeneration of a central, if beleaguered, discipline—classics—and reveal the root causes of its decline. Hanson, Heath, and Thornton point to academics themselves—their careerist ambitions, incessant self-promotion, and overspecialized scholarship, among other things—as the progenitors of the crisis, and call for a return to “academic populism,” an approach characterized by accessible, unspecialized writing, selfless commitment to students and teaching, and respect for the legacy of freedom and democracy that the ancients bequeathed to the West.

Moving portraits of five commanders whose dynamic leadership styles changed the course of warfare and history trace the stories of Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway and David Petraeus, evaluating their pivotal military roles and the controversies that marked their careers.

Exímio historiador militar, Victor Davis Hanson nos tem propiciado descrições meticulosas e inovadoras de guerras ocorridas desde a antiguidade clássica até o século XXI. Em Uma guerra sem igual, o escritor dá substância a um conflito de 30 anos a fim de torná-lo mais humano e, assim, permitir que a guerra seja mais do que uma remota luta de uma era distante. Ao longo de quase três décadas, há 2.400 anos, as cidades-estados helênicas de Atenas e Esparta envolveram-se em um conflito sangrento que resultou no colapso de Atenas. Embora o número de escritos sobre essa guerra seja vasto, Victor Davis Hanson nos oferece uma abordagem nova. De maneira cronológica, ele faz um relato completo que reflete os antecedentes políticos da época, trazendo também uma importante compreensão de como esses acontecimentos ecoam nos dias atuais. O autor retrata como atenienses e espartanos lutaram na terra e no mar, em cidades e áreas rurais, e detalha o emprego de amplo escopo de táticas, desde sítios até assassinatos planejados, tortura e terrorismo. Também avalia os papéis cruciais desempenhados por guerreiros como Péricles e Lisandro; artistas como Aristófanes; e filósofos como Sófocles e Platão. A perceptiva análise de eventos e personalidades sugere muitas questões sobre as quais vale à pena refletir: foram Atenas e Esparta como os Estados Unidos e a União Soviética, dois superpoderes que lutaram duramente? A Guerra do Peloponeso teria ecos nos intermináveis e frustrantes conflitos no Vietnã, na Irlanda do Norte e no atual Oriente Médio? Ou teria sido mais semelhante à própria Guerra Civil americana, uma ruptura brutal que desfez o tecido de uma sociedade gloriosa, ou mesmo à cisma do presente século entre liberais e conservadores, uma guerra cultural que manifestamente controla políticas militares?

El profesor Hanson, uno de los mayores expertos en historia militar, ha reunido en este volumen a investigadores de la talla de Donald Kagan, Barry Strauss o Peter J. Heather, entre otros, para ofrecernos una visión del papel de la guerra en el mundo antiguo, desde el enfrentamiento de los griegos contra el Imperio persa hasta la caída del Imperio romano, mil años más tarde. Este es un libro con protagonistas como Epaminondas, Pericles, Alejandro, Espartaco o César, que nos habla de las grandes batallas del pasado y nos ayuda a entender mayor los triunfos y la gloria de Atenas o de Roma. Pero es también una reflexión acerca de todo lo que hay de lección permanente en esta historia: de cuestiones como el choque de civilizaciones, las guerras preventivas, las luchas urbanas y el terrorismo o el agotamiento y colapso de los imperios.

In this sweeping and deeply imagined historical novel, acclaimed classicist Victor Davis Hanson re-creates the battles of one of the greatest generals of ancient Greece, Epaminondas. At the Battle of Leuktra, his Thebans crushed the fearsome army of Sparta that had enslaved its neighbors for two centuries. We follow these epic historical events through the eyes of Mêlon, a farmer who has left his fields to serve with Epaminondas-swept up, against his better judgment, in the fever to spread democracy even as he yearns to return to his pastoral hillside. With a scholar''s depth of knowledge and a novelist''s vivid imagination, Hanson re-creates the ancient world down to its intimate details-from the weight of a spear in a soldier''s hand to the peculiar camaraderie of a slave and master who go into battle side by side. The End of Sparta is a stirring drama and a rich, absorbing reading experience. Praise for Victor Davis Hanson: "I have never read another book that explains so well the truth that ''war lies in the dark hearts of us all'' but that history offers hope."-William Shawcross on The Father of Us All "Few writers cover both current events and history-and none with the brilliance and erudition of Victor Davis Hanson."-Max Boot on The Father of Us All "Enthralling."-Christopher Hitchens on The Western Way of War

In Who Killed Homer? acclaimed classicists Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath explain what has been sacrificed, who did it and why. Hanson and Heath argue that if we lose our knowledge of the Greeks, then we lose our understanding of who we are. With straightforward advice and informative readings of the great Greek texts, the authors show how we might still save classics and the Greeks for future generations. Who Killed Homer? is must reading for anyone who agrees that knowledge of classics acquaints us with the beauty and perils of our own culture.

Hanson, maestro de historiadores, explora la intrincada relación entre civilización y guerra, desde la Antigüedad hasta nuestros días. Una mirada filosófica, histórica y literaria a la guerra como "empresa completamente humana". Una defensa necesaria de la historia como estudio fundaental para resolver los conflictos de hoy a partir de las lecciones del pasado: la tecnología, la estrategia y las sociedades cambian, pero la naturaleza humana sigue siendo "el origen de todo".

''''Massive illegal immigration from Mexico into California, ''''Victor Davis Hanson writes, ''''coupled with a loss of confidence in the old melting pot model of transforming newcomers into Americans, is changing the very nature of state. Yet we Californians have been inadequate in meeting this challenge, both failing to control our borders with Mexico and to integrate the new alien population into our mainstream. ''''Noted for his military histories and especially his social commentary of post-9/11 American life, Hanson is a fifth-generation Californian who teaches college classics courses and runs a family farm. Mexifornia is part history, part political analysis, and part memoir. It is an intensely personal book about what has changed in the California over the last quarter century, and how the real losers in the chaos caused by hemorrhaging borders are the Mexican immigrants themselves. A large part of the problem, Hanson believes, comes from the opportunistic coalition that stymies immigration reform and, even worse, stifles an honest discussion of the growing problem. Corporations, contractors, and agribusiness demand cheap wage labor from Mexico, whatever the social consequences. Meanwhile, academics, journalists, government bureaucrats, and La Raza advocates envision illegal aliens as a vast new political constituency for those committed to the notion that victimhood, not citizenship, is the key to advancement. Mexifornia is an indictment of the policies that got California into its present mess. But this beautifully written book also reflects Hansons strong belief that our traditions of assimilation, integration, and intermarriage may yet remedy a problem that the politicians and ideologues have allowed to get out of hand.

Victor Davis Hanson has long been acclaimed as one of our leading scholars of ancient history. In recent years he has also become a trenchant voice on current affairs, bringing a historian''s deep knowledge of past conflicts to bear on the crises of the present, from 9/11 to Iran. "War," he writes, "is an entirely human enterprise." Ideologies change, technologies develop, new strategies are invented-but human nature is constant across time and space. The dynamics of warfare in the present age still remain comprehensible to us through careful study of the past. Though many have called the War on Terror unprecedented, its contours would have been quite familiar to Themistocles of Athens or William Tecumseh Sherman. And as we face the menace of a bin Laden or a Kim Jong-Il, we can prepare ourselves with knowledge of how such challenges have been met before. The Father of Us All brings together much of Hanson''s finest writing on war and society, both ancient and modern. The author has gathered a range of essays, and combined and revised them into a richly textured new work that explores such topics as how technology shapes warfare, what constitutes the "American way of war," and why even those who abhor war need to study military history. "War is the father and king of us all," Heraclitus wrote in ancient Greece. And as Victor Davis Hanson shows, it is no less so today.

In this revealing broadside, Victor Davis Hanson explains how President Obama has imprinted his domestic ideology of victimhood onto a therapeutic, Carter-inspired foreign policy. In Obama’s vision, the United State renounces its role as a defender of the postwar order and instead becomes an agent of global change – one that questions our existing system of defense, values, alliances, interests, and commerce. In tactical terms, Obama believes that his ''hope-and-change'' rhetoric and non-traditional background give him a moral authority abroad that will trump any inconsistency in U.S. foreign policy. But, as Hanson explains, at some future date, regional hegemons like Iran, Russia and China will demand even more acquiescence on the theory that the present government of the United States either will not object, or will do nothing concrete to stop them.

In this prequel to the now-classic Makers of Modern Strategy, Victor Davis Hanson, a leading scholar of ancient military history, gathers prominent thinkers to explore key facets of warfare, strategy, and foreign policy in the Greco-Roman world. From the Persian Wars to the final defense of the Roman Empire, Makers of Ancient Strategy demonstrates that the military thinking and policies of the ancient Greeks and Romans remain surprisingly relevant for understanding conflict in the modern world. The book reveals that much of the organized violence witnessed today--such as counterterrorism, urba.

Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times--from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes’s conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive--Victor Davis Hanson explains why the armies of the West have been the most lethal and effective of any fighting forces in the world. Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, Hanson argues that it is in fact Western culture and values–the tradition of dissent, the value placed on inventiveness and adaptation, the concept of citizenship–which have consistently produced superior arms and soldiers. Offering riveting battle narratives and a balanced perspective that avoids simple triumphalism, Carnage and Culture demonstrates how armies cannot be separated from the cultures that produce them and explains why an army produced by a free culture will always have the advantage.

On September 11, 2001, hours after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the eminent military historian Victor Davis Hanson wrote an article in which he asserted that the United States, like it or not, was now at war and had the moral right to respond with force. An Autumn of War, which opens with that first essay, will stimulate readers across the political spectrum to think more deeply about the attacks, the war, and their lessons for all of us.

Heather Mac Donald describes how an epidemic of crime, gangs, and illegitimacy is creating a new Hispanic underclass, and how the Mexican government aids and abets illegal immigration to the United States and thwarts state and local attempts to resist it. Steven Malanga shows how, despite much argument to the contrary, Hispanic immigrants produce a net cost to the American economy, not a net benefit, and he goes on to outline the kind of immigration policy that would be both liberal and in America''s interest. Victor Davis Hanson writes about his own experience growing up in California''s farm country and watching the Hispanic immigrant influx transform his state for the worse. The Immigration Solution proposes the same kind of policy in place in other advanced nations, one that admits skilled and educated people on the basis of what they can do for the country, not what the country can do for them.