Debunking Victor Davis Hanson's history

VCH holding forth in 2005

Matthew Duss at the TAPPED blog takes a look at The Meaning and Purpose of [Victor Davis] Hanson 01/01/08, reportedly George W. Bush's favorite historian and a star of the neoconservative circuit. Duss' summary:

Hanson's purpose ... is to present history as one long war between us and the barbarians, a parade of brave Western leaders using cunning and innovation to hold off successive waves of savage Orientals, of which radical Islamism is only the latest. Ignoring the fact that Islamic civilization drew upon, was influence by, and preserved the knowledge, arts, philosophy, and learning of antiquity before sharing them with "barbaric" Europe, Hanson simply edits those centuries out in order to present an unbroken line from the Greeks through the Romans to "the West" and prop up a hoary old "clash of civilizations" thesis.

He also references a series of posts by Bob Bateman at Eric Alterman's Altercation home base, which address the VDH version of history. The first of them is apparently this one: Bateman on Hanson: An Altercation Altercation 10/22/07.

Tags: bob bateman, michael duss, victor davis hanson

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