Response to Readership

Classics, Literature and Education

Why did you choose Poitiers rather than Tours in your "Carnage and Culture"?

Hanson: There is a long controversy over the name and location that involves custom and tradition, some uncertainty about the exact location of the battle, and the particular country and time in which one writes about the campaign—all that and more would require a long explanation.

Do you view Mongol military success as a historical fluke? Were they just raiders that were successful for longer than their predecessors, such as Attila?

Hanson: I think all such nomadic armies were not too successful in implanting permanent institutions that left a lasting mark as a result of their inroads into the West. Usually they were parasitic and preyed on existing wealth and capital of civilizations that they could neither replicate or maintain.

There is a sign or inscription posted above the portals of an ancient officer-training academy, which reads, "Here is where we learn to use the sword and to tell the truth." Have you come across that mantra in your studies of the ancients? If so, to what empire is it attributed and do you perhaps have a source?

Hanson: I haven’t seen that exact quote; although there are sentiments similar to it in Xenophon’s "Education of Cyrus," where the Persians emphasize veracity and martial prowess; and in Plutarch’s "Life of Lycurgus" as well as Xenophon’s "Constitution of the Lacedaemonians," truth-telling and arms of course are part of the Spartan indoctrination.

Can you recommend a specific university that teaches history, political science, etc without a heavy politically correct dogma? Where can a student learn HOW to think for him/herself?

Hanson: The rigorous great books institutions—St. Johns; St Thomas Aquinas; Hillsdale—all these are good. Seek a liberal arts college without a graduate program, one that stresses undergraduate education rather than just research.

I’m looking for a definitive biography of Marcus Aurelius. Can you make a recommendation?

Hanson: There are several. I always start with the Oxford Classical Dictionary that lists a brief bibliography for each entry.

Why classics? What first drew you to this field of study? 

Hanson: I was 18, from a farm, and sort of thrust into a strange world of UC Santa Cruz (the closest University of California campus to our family farm). I thought Greek and Latin were sort of a refuge from the chaos; and the teachers were both exciting and encouraging. The literature was tragic rather than therapeutic, and reminded me a lot of the agrarian world I had grown up in. One thing led to another, as advisors kept encouraging me to continue on as a way to find funding for my education. But by 26 I was sort of burned out after the BA and PhD—and sought a hiatus from a rather intense and uninterrupted 8-year academic regimen in full-time farming. Bad timing—the 1980s proved no picnic in California agriculture and so I tried to do both with only mixed success—to put it charitably.

Did Tolstoy show a flair for interpreting the strategy and tactics of warfare? Was he perhaps a gifted amateur? Or was he hopelessly off the mark where war is concerned.

Hanson: I think as novelists go he had real insights. Philosophy, literature, art, and history—these are not irrelevant when it comes to understanding something as human as war.