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

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

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 beleaguered, 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, and 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.

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

450 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2001

About the author

Bruce S. Thornton grew up on a cattle ranch in Fresno County, California. He received his B.A. in Latin from UCLA in 1975, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature: Greek, Latin, and English, from UCLA in 1983.

Thornton is currently Professor of Classics and Humanities at the California State University in Fresno, California. He is the author of eight books and numerous essays and reviews on Greek culture and civilization and their influence on Western civilization. He also has written on contemporary political and educational issues, as well as lecturing at venues such as the Smithsonian Institute, Hoover Institution and the Air Force Academy, as well as numerous colleges and universities.

He was a 2009-2011 Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where he currently is a research fellow.

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.