A certain classicist in the Central Valley has ignited quite a
hullabaloo in some academic circles, and he’s been paid half
a million dollars for his efforts.
The California State University, Fresno professor, who’s
committed to calling out the lefty slant he sees in university
instruction, might otherwise be seen as another conservative
curmudgeon exasperated with the politics of his more liberal
counterparts.
But that $500,000 gets in the way. So does his connection
straight to the White House.
Victor Davis Hanson landed an advance to write a book about the
Peloponnesian War, likely the largest amount of money anyone has
ever received to write about the subject.
And in February, he released a compilation of previously
published columns applying his classical training to lessons about
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here, the story gets sticky ““ because his analogies are
actually being taken seriously.
He has the ear of war architects Deputy Secretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President
Cheney and even President Bush himself.
He’s a frequent contributor to the conservative National
Review. He’s become the point man for the
“anti-critical backlash,” as one UCLA classics
professor calls it.
This guy isn’t just an armchair academic. Hanson has made
himself famous for political posturing.
A few years ago, he wrote a book titled “Who Killed
Homer?” that accused universities of abandoning classics in
their classrooms.
More recently, he’s been occupied with using his
background in classics and military history to justify Bush’s
agenda.
David Blank, the aforementioned UCLA professor, is more than
skeptical ““ and so are his colleagues.
Blank suspects the movement Hanson represents began during the
Reagan years.
It makes sense; Hanson’s ideological line is drawn
unapologetically between the West and militant Islam.
Yet, it’s too easy to chalk this up to the “culture
wars.” This isn’t a fringe movement, and it’s
been going on for a while.
Hanson’s friend Donald Kagan, a classics professor at
Yale, signed on to the Project for the New American Century ““
Wolfowitz’s pet think tank, which advances the
neo-conservative idea of a unipolar world.
Yikes. And you thought Wolfowitz came up with that himself.
When academics get tied up in political allegiances, the
conflict of interest reeks something suspicious. Since when are
scholars in the business of extrapolating their scholarship to
military strategy?
His invitations to White House Christmas parties
notwithstanding, I actually don’t think Hanson’s just
in it for the fame. He actually believes it.
Nevertheless, there are some serious concerns here about
compromising intellectual integrity for political gain.
We put up with all kinds of noise from professors who make a
living by manufacturing theories about revisionism, progressivism,
symbolism, essentialism and postmodernism.
Ironically, Hanson would likely disregard these flowery
“-isms” in favor of a more straightforward approach
““ yet he draws some extremely dubious associations of his
own. We really don’t need someone else comparing Ariel Sharon
to Ajax, the Trojan war hero. You’ve got to be kidding.
Blank, for one, says that with the Olympics coming up,
there’s been a tendency to “romanticize the role
Athenians had as progenitors of democracy in the world.” When
an athletic event inspires an intellectual debate that finds itself
in the Bush White House, I think we know we’re in
trouble.
E-mail [email protected] if after reading this column
you have a $500,000 advance waiting for her.