Biographies

Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (BA 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978-9), and received his Ph.D in Classics from Stanford University in Classics in 1980. He farmed full-time for five years before returning to academia part-time in 1984 to initiate a Classics program at California State University, Fresno. Currently, he is Professor of Classics and Coordinator of the Classical Studies Program.

In 1991 he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country’s top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, and a visiting professor of Classics at Stanford University during the years 1991-3. He will be visiting professor of military history at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland during the 2002-3 academic year.

He has written articles, editorials and reviews for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and International Herald Tribune, American Heritage, City journal, American Spectator, Policy Review, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, and Washington Times, and has been interviewed on nine occasions on National Public Radio, and appeared with David Gergen on the Jim Lehr PBS Newshour. He writes a column bi-weekly about contemporary culture and military history for National Review Online.

He is also the author of some sixty articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history, and contemporary culture. He has written or edited eleven books, including "Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece" (1983, paperback ed. University of California Press 1998), "The Western Way of War" (Alfred Knopf 1989, seven book club, paperback, and foreign editions and translations, 2nd paperback ed. UC Press 2000), Hoplites. "The Ancient Greek Battle Experience" (Routledge 1991; paperback ed. 1992), "The Other Greeks. The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization" (The Free Press 1995, 2nd. paperback ed. UC Press 2000), "Fields Without Dreams. Defending the Agrarian Idea" (The Free Press 1996; paperback ed. Touchstone 1997), "The Soul of Battle" (a history book club, book-of-the-month selection; The Free Press 1999, paperback ed. Anchor/ Vintage 2000).

He co-authored with John Heath "Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom" (The Free Press 1998, paperback Encounter Press, 2000; Readers Subscription Book Club Selection), and, with Bruce Thornton, and John Heath, "Bonfire of the Humanities. Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age" (ISI Books 2001).

His "The Wars of the Ancient Greeks" (Cassell 1999; paperback ed. 2001; History Book Club Selection) was the first volume to appear in John Keegan's edited multi-volume history of warfare. "The Land Was Everything. Letters From an American Farmer" (forward by Jane Smiley, Free Press 2000) appeared in spring 2000. His "Carnage and Culture. Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power" appeared from Doubleday in August 2001; currently he is completing "Ripples of Battle," to appear from Doubleday in spring 2003.

Honora Howell Chapman

It's rare that the study of ancient writing would command headlines in today's news. But Fresno State assistant professor of classics and humanities Honora Howell Chapman is engaged in just such a study. She is working on a comprehensive translation of the writings of Josephus. Josephus was born in Jerusalem in 37 AD and ultimately became one of the most famous Roman writers and a valued source of information about late second temple Judaism or the beginnings of Christianity.

In September, she will be speaking in Rome at the International Colloquium on Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome, held at the Pontifical Biblical Institute; she will be the only participant from a U.S. university. She is also organizing an upcoming session in Atlanta at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature on Josephus and the acta pro iudaeis, which are official documents found in Josephus concerning Judeans/Jews, including those living in specific cities under the Romans, and their rights and privileges. The historical origins, purposes, and consequences of such documents will the main foci of papers delivered by scholars from Israel, Canada, Britain, and the U.S.

Honora Howell Chapman was educated in the classics at Stanford University, including studies in Florence and Rome.

She won the prestigious Whiting Fellowship and a Graduate Fellowship at Stanford University. 

At Fresno State her main focus is teaching Latin and Greek at all levels along with Professors Thornton and Hanson, and to be a mentor for the students.

Her expertise includes ancient history, Western Civilization, classical literature and theater, the Roman Empire, Medieval and Renaissance history, early Christianity, St. Augustine, Latin and Greek.

She is Co-chair of the Josephus Seminar at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion. Since 1999, Dr. Chapman has been Co-chair (along with Steve Mason) of this international group of 25 chosen scholars who study Josephus within the context of Hellenistic Judaism and Graeco-Roman culture. This seminar was created as a scholarly forum to support the Brill publication of the entire corpus of Josephus’ works as English text with substantial commentary. Steve Mason chose Dr. Chapman to be the co-chair because she has demonstrated unique expertise in how the field of Classics crosses disciplines and pertains to the study of Josephus; also, Dr. Chapman provides very necessary gender balance for the overwhelmingly male scholarly community in this field.

Bruce S. Thornton

Bruce S Thornton, a native of Fresno County, received his BA in Latin from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1975, and his PhD in Comparative Literature: Greek, Latin, and English, from UCLA in 1983.

He is the author of numerous essays and reviews on Greek culture and civilization and their influence on Western civilizations, and also has written on contemporary political and educational issues.

Thornton is a frequent guest on talk radio shows across the nation, has lectured at venues such as The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and appears regularly on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.”  He is a regular contributor to the popular conservative Web site www.CaliforniaRepublic.org, commenting on societal trends, cultural issues and news events.

Thornton has written numerous essays for a wide variety of publications, including The National Review Online, Heterodoxy, The National Herald, Arion, The San Francisco Examiner, The American Enterprise Magazine, The University Bookman, Religious Studies Review,  Intercollegiate Review, The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Helios, and the American Journal of Philology.

Thornton is the author of numerous books. Among the most notable are:

"Searching for Joaquin: Myth and History in California" (forthcoming from Encounter Books, Fall 2002)

"Bonfire of the Humanities. Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age," with John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2001)

"Greek Ways. How the Greeks Created Western Civilization" (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2000)

"Humanities Handbook" (Prentice-Hall, 2000)

"Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge" (Wilmington, DE: ISI Press, 1999).

"Eros the Killer: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality" (Boulder, Co.: Westview, 1997) Paperback edition an alternate selection of the Reader's Subscription, April 1998.

Thornton lives in Fresno with his wife and two sons.