Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age

by Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Bruce S. Thornton

With humor, lucidity, and unflinching rigor, the acclaimed authors of Who Killed Homer? and Plagues of the Mind unsparingly document the degeneration of a central if beleagured discipline - classics and reveal the root causes of its decline. Hanson, Heath, and Thornton point to academics themselves - their careerist ambitions, incessant self-promotion, and overspecialized scholarship, among other things - as the progenitors of the crisis. They call for a return to academic populism, an approach characterized by accessible, unspecialized writing, selfless commitment to students and teaching, and respect for the legacy of freedom and democracy that the ancients bequeathed to the West.

This is an important book for those who wish to give the classics a primary place in the education of our youth and for all those who care about quality teaching.
- Washington Times

[R]eaders who enjoy common sense expressed in vigorous prose are going to love Bonfire of the Humanities.
- Academic Questions

Genres: Education, History, Humanities, Politics, Philosophy, Classics, Academia

373 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2001

About the author

Victor Davis Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA, Classics, 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978-79) and received his Ph.D. in Classics from Stanford University in 1980. He lives and works with his family on their forty-acre tree and vine farm near Selma, California, where he was born in 1953.

Reviews

[Colin]

Essential reading for anyone concerned about the decline of Classical education in America.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although I agree most of which what Professors Hanson, Heath, and Thornton had to say about the state of the classics and what needed to be done (writing for the public rather than for specialists, better focus on being undergraduate professors rather than gaining grants and sabbaticals), I did not care for their execution. I became tired of their constant baiting of classics professors that they disagreed with particularly that of Judith Hallett. Apparently after a publication, Hallett claimed she turned both Professors Hanson and Heath in as possible suspects for the Unabomber. This entire story is shown at length in Hanson's essay "Too Much Ego in Your Cosmos" and then once again in the epilogue titled "Not the Unabomber." This distracted me from the purpose of the book (to explain the danger of extinction and promote the classics). That the entire epilogue revolves around this story and is a vindication of Heath and Hanson while explaining the craziness of Hallett made me question the real motive of the book. I think this same information can be gathered elsewhere from a much less scandal-dwelling resource.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I missed humor, lucidity, et all and got vitriol and cumbersome clauses against Martha Nussbaum.

[Scott Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of it is Pollyannaish -because the nihilistic, Marxist Left has effectively won this round, if not the whole fight- but all of it is true.

Also: Victor Hanson is a great thinker. I do not know the guy, but he seems like he would be a fantastic academic role model - or decent, honourable peer- for reasoned men everywhere. In a dark time, it is nice to read his work or see him lecture on YouTube (before they take him down).

[Steve]

Several have questioned how such an old (2001) book on contemporary educational trends could be of any use to the reader. My only real reply, apart from the historical interest it contains, is that the responses to the issues then still hold true today. The situation has not improved. Heath, Hanson, and Thornton's wisdom still appertain. Even if the whole thing seems long, read any individual essay and receive insight.