Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers

Victor Davis Hanson: The American crisis is deeper and more broadly spread than it seems. "America's Nervous Breakdown - and The World's" 10/06/08

Week September 29-October 5

Book Review

Victor Davis Hanson: In a new book, Nino Luraghi explores the language, culture and sense of self of the ancient Messenians, the helots of Sparta. "Imagine That" 10/04/08

Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Sarah Palin won the debate. "Debate Impressions" 10/04/08

Political Parody

Victor Davis Hanson: What if Sarah Palin made all the gaffes that Biden has made? "Sarah Biden: A Parody" 10/02/08

Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson: Did the McCain debate victory matter? "Time Is Running Out" 10/02/08

Economy

Victor Davis Hanson: Here are some thoughts on the politics of financial crisis. "The Financial Crisis" 9/30/08

Economy

Victor Davis Hanson: Who created the financial crisis? "Dr. Frankenstein's Wall Street" 9/29/08

Week September 22-28, 2008

Culture

Victor Davis Hanson: Who's the elitist? Our candidates accuse each other. But what is elitism? "Elitism" 9/28/08

Review

Victor Davis Hanson: Martin van Creveld's The Culture of War argues the reason war is rooted in human behavior. "Why We Fight" 9/27/08

Geo-politic

Victor Davis Hanson: Are Europeans really ready for Obama? "The Limits of Obamamania in Europe" 9/26/08
Candidate

Victor Davis Hanson: What does Obama mean when he talks about changes in diplomacy? "Fossilized Foreign Policy" 09/24/08

Islam

Raymond Ibrahim: Should one look to the Koran or U.S. actions to explain al Qaedist actions? "What Al Qaeda Wants" 9/22/08

Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson: Obama's move to the center challenges his hope-and-change mantra. "Obama Proves All Too Human" 9/22/08

Week September 15-21, 2008

Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson: What really counts for wisdom when we look for leadership? "Palin and Obama: What Really Is Wisdom" 9/19/08

Campaign

Victor Davis Hanson: These NRO Corners explore recent ad campaigns and the crisis of the left-leaning media. "Campaign Obama Frayed" 9/18/08

Review

Bruce S. Thornton: New book by Horowitz and Johnson provides a faithful chronicle of the Democratic Party's failure to fight terrorism. "No We Can't" 9/17/08

Culture

Victor Davis Hanson: Feminists now forget the 1960's agenda of NOW. "What Was Feminism?" 9/15/08

Week September 8-14, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "Obamania - As in Craziness, Not Craze" 9/14/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "More Journalistic Malpractice" 9/14/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Other 9/11 Story" 9/11/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Race Tightens Up" 9/10/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "What Real Change?" 9/08/08

Week September 1-7, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "Sarah Palin and her Discontents" 9/6/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Target Palin" 9/05/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Railin' on Palin" 9/04/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Palin and the Great Liberal Crack-up" 9/03/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Farewell NATO" 9/01/08

Week: August 25-31, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "A Maverick Choice" 8/30/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Conventional Convention" 8/29/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Blame Everyone but Russia!" 8/25/08

Week: August 18-24, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "Through the Looking-Glass" 8/24/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Angry Reader: Germany is better, VDH" 8/22/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Tragedy Continues" 8/21/08

Raymond Ibrahim: "Today in History" 8/19/07

Victor Davis Hanson: "Brave Old World" 8/19/08

Week August 11-17, 2008

Joseph Tartakovsky: "Man of a Thousand Faces" 8/17/08

Sen. Sam Aanestad: "More Uninsured, Please" 8/17/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Human Nature Being What It Is" 8/15/08

Bruce Thornton: "Islam Without Apologetics" 8/14/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Obama the Racialist" 8/14/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Russia's Sinister Brilliance" 8/12/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Hillary's Long Shadow" 8/11/08

Week August 4-10, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "Affirmative Action in the News" 8/10/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Summer of Reflection" 8/09/08

Bruce Thornton: "Obama's Race Card" 8/07/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Angry Reader" 8/06/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Obama's Ten Commandments" 8/05/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "What If Iraq Works?" 8/05/08

Week July 28-August 3, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "Harvesting Money in a Hungry World" 8/01/08

Chapter 1: 'Chapter 1" 7/30/08

Chapter 2: "Chapter 2" 7/30/08

Chapter 3: "Chapter 3" 7/30/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "A Summer of War and Politics" 7/30/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Model-Oh-Ya" 7/29/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "The '60s Won't Go Away" 7/28/08

Week July 21-27, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "'This Is the Moment'" 7/25/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "It's America, Obama" 7/25/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Our Many Messiahs" 7/24/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Model-O" 7/23/08

Raymond Ibrahim: "Al-Jazeera and History" 7/22/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Speech Given to the Bradley Foundation" 7/22/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "America Is Not a Post-Anything" 7/21/08

Week July 14-20, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson:"More Iraqi Ironies" 7/19/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Summer Madness" 7/19/08

Honora Howell Chapman: "Sensible Solutions" 7/17/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "McCain, Where Art Thou?" 7/16/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Bitter Pills" 7/15/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Barack W. Bush" 7/15/08

Raymond Ibrahim: "Excusing Taqiyya?" 7/14/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Tony Snow, R.I.P." 7/14/08

Week July 7-13, 2008

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Neocon Slur" 7/12/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "It Doesn't Always Compute" 7/11/08

Victor Davis Hanson: "Model-Obama" (7/10/08)

Raymond Ibrahim: "Land Dispute or Jihad?" (7/10/08)

Honora Howell Chapman: "Who Killed Homer? Ten Years Later" (7/8/08)

Bruce S. Thornton: "Religion and the Age" (7/8/08)

July 7, 2008
Imagining the Election
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services

Order Now

Bruce Thornton's Decline and Fall is a sobering analysis of a doomed EUtopia.

One way to envision the McCain-Obama presidential race is as a boxing match — particularly like the famous Mohammed Ali championship fights.

The deliberate McCain is like a Sonny Liston or George Foreman trying to cut the ring in half and force his lighter-footed opponent onto the ropes. For McCain, this comes in the form of numerous proposed town-hall debates, where he hopes that face-to-face questions and answers will fall on his less-seasoned opponent like sudden haymakers.

More "Imagining the Election"

July 6, 2008
Marking Our Territory
by Victor Davis Hanson
The New York Sun

A review of Conquest: How Societies Overwhelm Others by David Day. Oxford University Press, 2008.

A rare collection of al Qaeda writings.

Islam according to Islamists.

Many never before translated into English.

Order Now

Mr. Day offers a short universal history of the proverbial day after — or how various invading peoples substantiated their claims on the conquered, carried out subsequent annexations, and succeeded or failed in imprinting their own identity on newly acquired territories.

More "Marking Our Territory"

July 5, 2008
Fourth of July Flopitis
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner

The question is no longer on what has Obama backtracked, but rather on what has he not?

The political problems with Obama's flopitis are twofold: one, it is coming late in the season. To defeat Hillary he went hard left in the void left by Edwards. But the primary dragged on so long, that when he just recently flipped and flopped to leave the hard left on NAFTA, Trinity Church, Rev. Wright, FISA, gun control, campaign financing, death penalty, Iran, Iraq, Jerusalem, etc. he did so in the near summer, not late winter. The result is that his formerly left positions were showcased longer than most go-to-the-center politicians and thus his abandonment of them more striking and fresh in our memories.

More "Fourth of July Flopitis"

July 4, 2008
Reflection Day
These two truths should be self-evident.
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

On this Fourth of July of our discontent — with spiraling fuel prices, a sluggish economy, a weak dollar, mounting foreign and domestic debt, continuing costs in Iraq, a falling stock market, and a mortgage crisis — we should remember two truths about America. First, the United States remains the most free and affluent country in the history of civilization. Second, almost all our problems are lapses of complacency, remain relatively easily correctable, and pale in comparison to past crises.

More "Reflection Day"

July 2, 2008
Gathering Storm
by Bruce S. Thornton
National Review Magazine

A review of Andrew C. McCarthy, Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad, Encounter Books, 2008.

Eight years before the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Islamic jihadists sent America a wake-up call that most of us slept through. On February 26, 1993, a Ryder van containing a 1400-pound urea-nitrate bomb exploded in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center, killing seven, injuring over a thousand, and inflicting nearly a billion dollars worth of damage. As the subsequent investigation would reveal, a cell of jihadists living for several years in New York had executed the attack and were planning others against the U.N. building, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the New York headquarters of the FBI.

More "Gathering Storm"

June 30, 2008
Dreams from His Grandmother
Ten general-election strategies Obama can use to disguise his hard-left views.
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online

I think we are beginning to see the full measure of the Obama general campaign strategy, framed along ten or so key directives that can allow the election of the most leftward candidate in American political history.

More "Dreams from His Grandmother"

June 30, 2008
The Can’t-Do Society
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services

We have become a nation of second-guessing Hamlets.

Shakespeare warned us about the dangers of "thinking too precisely." His poor Danish prince lost "the name of action," as he dithered and sighed that "conscience does make cowards of us all."

More "The Can't-Do Society"

June 27, 2008
Security and Freedom
by Victor Davis Hanson
Private Papers

The Margaret Thatcher lecture delivered to the Heritage Foundation, June 3rd, 2008.

There cannot be freedom without security nor true security without freedom. The Greeks from the very beginning understood this symbiosis between the two, and framed the nature of the relationship — and occasional antithesis — between these necessary poles. The historian Thucydides, for example, makes Pericles in his famous funeral oration, talk in depth about the nature of democratic military service and sacrifice that are the linchpins of the freedom of Athens, and how any short-term disadvantages that may harm an open society at war are more than compensated by the creativity, exuberance, and democratic zeal that free peoples bring to war.

More "Security and Freedom"

June 26, 2008
Islam's History of Anti-Semitism
by Raymond Ibrahim
Washington Times

Is there such a thing as Islamic anti-Semitism? That is the implicit question that Andrew Bostom's new book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, tackles. The regrettable answer that presents itself is not based on conjecture, political correctness, anachronisms or wishful thinking — increasingly the domains and paradigms of modern academia — but rather primary texts that speak for themselves. Dr. Bostom, whom I have met and who evinces a passion for the subject of his book, still manages to approach it objectively. A medical doctor by profession, he applies the scientific method and bases his conclusions on the data — as all scholars used to.

More "Islam's History of Antisemitism"

June 24, 2008
The Politics of Predicting
The left has authored more atrocities than the right.
by Terry Scambray
Private Papers

A version of this essay was published in The Fresno Bee, May 31, 2008.

Phillip Jenkins, respected historian at Penn State University, writes in The Los Angeles Times that there “is a sound basis in American political history” for predicting that the election of a Democratic president will cause “assassinations and bombings” by right wingers.

More "The Politics of Predicting"

June 23, 2008
Obama Promises Change — But What Kind?
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services

By this point in the presidential campaign, the public knows that a charismatic Barack Obama wants sweeping "change." While the national media have often fallen hard for the Illinois senator's rhetoric — MSNBC's Chris Matthews said he felt a "thrill going up my leg" during an Obama speech — exactly what kind of change can Obama bring if he's elected in November?

More "Obama Promises Change - But What Kind?"

June 22, 2008
Energy — the Non-Issue?
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner

The following entries on The Corner are a collection of VDH's thought on our energy troubles.

I don't quite understand why one party or the other doesn't campaign on delivering more energy to the American people to lower costs, keep the world price down, and money out of the hands of terrorists, and to address U.S. debt and the falling dollar. There seems no contradiction between wanting nuclear power, clean coal, tar and shale, more drilling off our coasts and Alaska — and more conservation, more money for hydrogen, biofuels, more solar, wind, etc.

More "Energy - the Non-Issue?"

June 20, 2008
Would a Jihadi by Any Other Name Smell as Foul?
by Raymond Ibrahim
The American Thinker

The terminology we use to describe our enemy in the war on terror matters a lot. A spirited debate is underway among specialists and in the press.

An op-ed published in the New York Times entitled "What do you call a Terror(Jihad)ist?", by P.W. Singer and Elina Noor, attempts to defend the recent State Department memo advising government personnel to refrain from using theologically-laden terms — "jihadi," "mujahidin," "caliphate," "Islamo-fascism," "salafi," "wahhabi," "ummah" — when describing Islamic radicals and their motives. Instead, generics — "terrorists," "extremists" — should suffice.

More "Would a Jihadi by Any Other Name Smell as Foul?"

Books & Things

June 12, 2008
Clarity, Courage and Culture
Few defend the West like Somali-born Hirsi Ali.
by Bruce S. Thornton
The New Individualist

A review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel (The Free Press, 2007, pp. 353).

Our most dangerous weakness in the war against Islamic terror is the failure of cultural nerve afflicting many Westerners.

More "Clarity, Courage and Culture"

June 3, 2008
Plan for a Century
by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Magazine

Review of Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century, by Philip Bobbitt (Knopf, 2008, 688 pp.)

Anyone who finished Philip Bobbitt’s massive, 900-page-plus The Shield of Achilles (2002) might not be surprised about the size and organization of its sequel, Terror and Consent — a 600-page-plus volume replete with book parts, chapters within chapters, Roman-numeraled subsections, bullet-marked sub-subsections, a conclusion, and a coda, all fortified with lengthy indented quotations, footnotes, and italicized passages.

More "Plan for a Century"

May 3, 2008
Darwin & Co., Ltd.
Just how limited?
by Terry Scambray
Private Papers

A review of Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. (The Free Press, 2007) which appeared in the Fall 2007 edition of Faith & Reason.

“Buy low and sell high,” is the proverbial path to wealth. But have you ever thought of an opposite pathway? “Buy high; sell low — Make it up on volume!”

More "Darwin & Co., Ltd."

April 26, 2008
The Will to Reason
Can we expect rational man from tribal society?
by Bruce Thornton
The New Individualist

A review of Lee Harris, The Suicide of Reason. Radical Islam’s Threat to the West (New York: Basic Books, 2007)

Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

More "The Will to Reason"

March 27, 2008
Radical Thoughts
Dr. Tawfik Hamid reveals life as an Islamicist.
by Raymond R. Ibrahim
Private Papers

This review of Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam by Dr. Tawfik Hamid (Top Executive Media, 2006) was originally published at ASMEA as “An Insider’s Thoughts on Radical Islam.”

Several singular reasons make Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam by Dr. Tawfik Hamid a welcome contribution to the otherwise growing lore on radical Islam.

More "Radical Thoughts"

February 21, 2008
The Alchemist
Brother Tariq can’t turn his Muslim to Western.
by Bruce S. Thornton
Private Papers

A review of Brother Tariq. The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan, by Caroline Fourest, trans. by Joana Wieder and John Atherton (Encounter Books, 2008)

The moderate Muslim leader is the theologico-political philosopher’s stone that many in the West believe can reconcile Islam with modernity and thus transmute disaffected Muslims, ripe for jihadist recruitment, into tolerant liberal democrats.

More "The Alchemist"

January 29, 2008
Twilight of the Nation-State
European transnationalism is a utopian dream, Pierre Manent warns.
Bruce S. Thornton
City Journal

A review of Democracy Without Nations? The Fate of Self-Government in Europe by Pierre Manent, translated by Paul Seaton (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 130 pp.)

The European Union’s grand project rests on the belief that nationalism is passé, indeed pernicious.

More "Twilight of the Nation-State"

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October 23, 2008
Fresno, CA

Time: 7:00-8:30
Location: Fresno Convention Center New Exhibition Hall
Sponsor: Sunbird Conservatives/Fresno Pacific
Top ic: "Elections 2008 and Current Events"
Contact: Preston Little

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