“The End of Everything,” with Victor Davis Hanson | Uncommon Knowledge

Recorded on April 9, 2024.

Classicist Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books, the latest of which is The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation. The book—and this conversation—charts how and why some societies choose to utterly destroy their foes and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time. Hanson provides a warning to current societies not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

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The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.

© 2024 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.

[baltasarnoreno]

Victor makes it transparently clear why anyone in politics or in any kind of leadership role should have a very deep education in history. Everything that is happening in the world today has happened before. It's just a question of recognising the events and personalities.

[marcbra]

Fabulous to listen to.
Who watches TV when there’s Interviews like this.

[JeddieT]

Well, it will come down to this...
_“Do you want freedom, or not? Freedom costs blood. That’s the fact, that’s the law of human nature. If you want it, you have to pay a price. If you turn around and give it away, you’re not going to have it. The option you’re now playing with is horrible. What you have now that was bought with blood, is going to be taken. And when you give that away, it’s not replaced with a different kind of freedom. You don’t replace freedom with freedom. Freedom is replaced by oppression, by dominance, by horrible things.”_

~ Native American Comanche Indian, Dr. David Yeagley

[heathermc]

Have tremendous respect for VDH. Have read him thoroughly. However, as a military strategist, I wish he'd offer a strategy for the majority of Americans who want to save our country! The problems are obvious. The solutions and how to implement them are the problem.

[Dante]

Victor Davis Hanson - one of the best military historian nowadays.
Thank you for this guest!

[billturner]

The end does not comes when a society no longer has faith in its own religious beliefs and its own history
but when it becomes so cynical it refuses to believe that their adversaries really do still believe in theirs

[japponica]

What a brilliant 👏 man and so goes Western society. Instead of a massive onslaught, we are being destoyed by slow strangulation within.

[paulmilligan]

The biggest worry is the truth of “we are not the people we were”.

[stephensangalli]

Peter is always well prepared and does an excellent job of interviewing his guests. He deserves a lot of praise for his efforts.

[markseehawer]

I believe what Victor is saying Is closer than we think. I think it's a when not an if. None of will be ready for whats coming. I'm 64 and this will happen with in my life time. I have felt this way for quite some time now. Make the most of your lives now.

[jesuewalker]

I was blessed to be taught a class by Dr Hanson. Brilliant!

[DudeFun-yinu]

Brilliant, frightening, illuminating -- the cold shower of reality, thank you.

[mackenshaw]

I don't think English speakers can get their head around this idea. A short conversation with anyone from Rhodesia would be most educational for this.

[JavelinCoaching]

One of the finest minds, so knowledgable, articulated, and a true enciclopedia of so many topics, history, literature, politics, and so on. I enjoy his podcasts so much.

[jksmithiii]

Read Thucydides in college. Then work stole my mind. Close to retirement. Might retire just to read VDH's works. Already read a couple. Part of the definition of sovereignty is simply having the time to think and discover for yourself instead of being paid to think and discover for decades of turd company after turd company. Sincere thanks Prof Hanson.

[ChrisMoffat-ovlx]

50.59: "People who have not been defeated or are accustomed to a position of superiority, culturally, militarily, they think that they are invulnerable for ever, and they are not aware of insidious decline." .... "We have been here a thousand years .... we can't fall"

This reminds me, as a Brit, of the UK and of the deluded thinking of our government, indeed of almost all of our political class, that spending only 2% of GDP on defence is adequate, with an aspiration to spend 2.5% "when economic conditions allow" as they themselves put it.

[bekscha]

I went to the Hagia Sophia right before the election when it was still a museum. Only months after that trip it was a mosque again.
It was stunning. The history is palpable and fascinatingly still ongoing.

[ProdigalSon]

Dear Lord Jesus,
Please let the leaders of America heed the lessons of history.

[robingiusti]

This is the first time ive really sat and listened to VDH. I heard so many people speak about him. I must say he is quite an extraordinary and rare individual.

[friedarobertson]

This is my first time to hear Victor Davis Hanson and I am sorry to say that. What a treasure!! What an absolutely spot-on and timely interview and I hope and pray millions in the USA (the world actually) hear this and understand the full parallels of our time and this history lesson. We will learn from history...or repeat it. Thank you so much for this presentation. I am ordering the book pronto.