When: Wednesday, April 6, noon
Where: Indiana Convention Center, 500 Ballroom
Sponsored by the Economic Club of Indianapolis
Victor Davis Hanson is worth the price of admission. Before 9/11, he was a historian of ancient Greece whose outspokenly conservative political views weren't his most unusual feature. He'd been a full-time grape farmer before founding Cal State Fresno's Classic Department. His experience farming helped brilliantly illuminate the ways the Greeks' employment growing grapes and olives shaped their ways of waging war. After 9/11, Hanson's career shifted. He combined advocating a very hawkish approach to the war on Islamic extremism with a view that the Bush Administration is a last bulwark of everything good about the West that is under assault from barbarians and evil. A collection of his 2001 National Review essays, An Autumn of War, became a best-seller. Something very similar occurred with the historian of the Ottomans, Bernard Lewis, who after 9/11 emerged as the leading interpreter of Islamic hostility to the US.
I like Hanson's work on the ancient Greeks a lot, and always enjoy reading his military analyses. The closer he gets to home, the less interesting he gets. Even though I may agree with some of his views of American politics, it's kind of predictable, not much different than most of the other writers for National Review. And his book Mexifornia had nothing surprising in it. so let's hope he sticks with his strengths at the Economic Club lunch.
Membership dues for the Economic Club of Indianapolis are $60. Luncheon costs are $22 (club members) and $29 (non-members). For information on becoming a member of the Economic Club of Indianapolis, please contact Shani Johnson via email or by calling 317-464-2212.
If you like this event, you should check out ...
- April 11: A very different take on the relevance of the ancient world to today's crises will come from Richard Hansley's "Jesus and Empire"
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