Farming, Warfare, and a Classical Life | Victor Davis Hanson

In this episode of The Larry Arnn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson. The two discuss Hanson’s life growing up on his family farm, how he began to study the classics, and his insight into the works of Aristophanes and Thucydides. Later, Hanson speaks on the nature of warfare, the death of citizenship, and his prescription for getting America out of its current mess. This interview was conducted on September 8, 2023.

[@CountryWolf_TX]

“Ruled by people who never fought, farmed or never read an old book” Brilliant! 🌲🇺🇸🌲

[@evansmoak7182]

Love listening to these two men. If we started the country over, I'd like these men to be among the founding fathers.

[@fredbulliard8984]

Larry Arnn is so right - VDH is a “knower”! I so enjoyed this. Thanks - Jane

[@stevewesley8187]

Thank you Hillsdale for this video !

[@bearowen5480]

I could listen to Victor talk about these things all day long. His homilies about the values that make life meanigful strike a harmonic chord among those of us who grew up in a vanishing class of people whose formative lives were tied in some intimate way with the working of the soil. The dwindling numbers of us who grew up in small town rural America or on the surrounding farms that gave life to our economy and culture are forced to wonder what the urbanization of our society will ultimately mean for the disappearing American culture that we remember and love so fondly. As Victor speaks of his memories of that special rewarding but challenging life as yeoman farmers, I strongly detect a haunting sadness in his voice about an America that no longer exists for those of us who also knew its deeply human triumphs and tragedies, who can still remember the ghostly wail of a distant steam locomotive's whistle, or the sound of the wind rustling through well tended fields of ripening wheat or the leaves in a cherry orchard. It is very sad for us to think that those memories will shortly die with us, and future generations of Americans will never know those sights, fragrances, and sounds of mankind's intimacy with the soil.

[@rhiannonraventhorn5592]

I believe I'd happily read your recollections of the now lesser known American life, too. You write beautifully.

[@terriejohnson6498]

Sad😢

[@terriejohnson6498]

Amen

[@terriejohnson6498]

❤😢

[@ahhammouti3928]

it'a always pleasure and intersting to listen the professor Victor Davis Hanson but with an addendum of constitition Professor Larry Amn that's Great 😓😓

[@RussiaIsARiddle778]

Dr. Hanson, I have been a public high school history teacher for 2+ decades and when you spoke of your students knowing minutiae about World War II, I had a little chuckle to myself. Perhaps I am too cynical, but I think they are eager to correct you is not due to scholarship. It’s been my experience that they know these specifics because they’ve played video games thousands of times which use the subject matter of WWII battles/weapons in their video games. World of Warcraft comes to mind. Each year I will get a handful of students (all boys) who can detail with great specificity the battles, weapons, chronology, etc. of World War II as found in their games. Having followed, your interviews on KZbin and read several of your books, I am rather certain your unique interest as a boy is due to your brilliance. I’m very appreciative to have your trove of public interviews and lectures to enjoy online. Thank you very much for creating such a sizable legacy of accessible material for those, like me, who have come late to having a voracious interest in history undiscovered until adulthood.

[@jensschirner6137]

Yes, Hillsdale is a beacon of hope even from Germany.

[@user-lk2nx8pn3g]

Great show, like I've heard a lot of people say before, Victor is a national treasure.

[@razcohen5590]

Hi from Israel. I would like to suggest a correction to this statement. VDH is an international treasure. Absolute legend.

[@weirdshibainu]

The opener of "All of War is based on ignorance" is fantastic. It applies not only to nations (Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor a stunning example) but also in everyday lives. I've seen this in public places and it seldom ends well for the aggressor.

[@cmcgruder3829]

The discussion at 37:30 is prescient. I started watching this before the Hamas conflict and finished today. Ease vs readiness is a hard balance to strike.

[@Doing_Time]

hindsight: nailed it on israel situation I cut cord in 1999, stopped watching tv when the first of my kids were born 8 years ago, and stopped watching all professional sports one by one as my favorite football team was erased, my favorite basketball team put blm on the court, and my favorite baseball team started having pride days...

[@saffronskies333]

I was just thinking, "I wish there was something new from Victor Davis Hanson! and just like that...

[@tomlawless1122]

Likewise!

[@scottschaeffer8920]

Haven’t met a farmer yet who conceded he can’t control things, it’s all about control. GMOs, linked herbicides, neo treated seed, I can go on. Weather? Well, what’s irrigation? Agreed, Victor is a wonderful scholar, and I’ve learned a ton from his grace.

[@charlesburkhart800]

Thank you both.

[@6663000]

VDH is the wisest man in the world.

[@Oneofthetwelve]

Great interview theme. Thank you.

[@richardhengy8988]

VDH is the Ambassador of Truth

[@TheVenge]

I love to listen to VDH, and I agree with him in spirit and find him to be correct in almost everything. I differ strongly with him though on one point in particular: he said it couldn't get worse. My friends, it absolutely CAN. And, sadly, I think it will get worse than almost anyone can think.

[@lauriemanno7829]

He is absolutely right,! Thank you.

[@JohnMarsing]

That was great and inspiring. Thank you

[@roberteckert]

This is wonderful. I wish I had enough time left to explore this.

[@timothybrown820]

Have VDH and JBP had a conversation yet? I bet that would be exceptional.

[@JamesJosephkurtzenacker]

More positive attention and appreciation focus towards the sincere message (s) provided by genuine folks like VDH...

[@darbyohara]

6:00 the anecdote about his family and who lived into their 80s and 90s is a really interesting comparison when the younger generations had more technology and an easier life yet all died shy of 70 🤔 … almost like we’re killing our selves to get away from our roots

[@ronhugginskw]

Ive yet to hear one polictical leader in Washington, DC speak with such knowledge and understanding. Unfortunately, Political self-interest and greed is destroying our great nation. Would Mr. Hanson consider polictical office? Greatly needed.

[@Mattsprankle]

Something I think that is more important than civic education is Christian education from which civic education grows. At the very end, Dr. R and ask the question about spiritual renewal. That is what is missing no amount of studying the founders for ancient documents or classical thinkers is going to produce the root from which the fruit Hillsdale celebrates grows, I appreciate Hillsdale and I am grateful for the work I put the norms, traditions and customs that are evaporated in our society or fruit that grow from the people that worship Christ with all their heart mind soul, and strength. Do you Fenians in the Romans could not stop the depravity info in nature of man only the Holy Spirit can do that. Cultural renewal is downstream from the cultus- Christ.

[@ahhammouti3928]

We appreciate the president professor Larry Amn ( many thinks for the MOOCs about constitution ) and his guest Pr Victor davis Hanson my question is the president recruiting himself the professors ??????😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@lrlforfun]

My father and his 4 sisters, my mother in law and her 2 sisters........all left the farm at age 18. Did hard work drive them off. NO NO NO. Mom and dad did not know how to present the farm to the kids. Hard work can be so much fun when the presentation is right.

[@rdekemper]

Who are the other classic scholars in the top 10?

[@watchful1168]

Well done-I enjoyed it and learned. My only disappointment with Dr. Hanson has been his cold analysis of the Ukraine war. He never seems to hold their courageous struggle up as a light for history because he veers off to complain about other (mostly) unimportant undercurrents in Ukrainian society and the history of that whole part of the world.

[@83licata]

We have to make sure deterring war, doesn't become America constantly getting involved in other countries conflict, because it becomes generational war. Or America going back and fixing the mess that was created by bad policies that were implemented by the state; a lot of the Iraq and Afghanistan war was a result of the Iran vs Iraq conflict from the 1980s and as you said Victor the Persian Gulf! "Of all the enemies to the public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded." James Madison

[@user-qr5vb3vm6e]

Ditto dear. Dittos.

[@jileel]

It cant get worse? Doesnt he study Rome? It can always get worse.