Why World War II Matters

Victor Davis Hanson is one of my favorite scholars. He carries a quality of wisdom similar to Jordan Peterson. They are both teachers.

He said the study of military history is a confirmation of human nature as unchanging and predictable in times of crisis.

The Greek historian Thucydides pointed this out long ago in his 5th-century BC history of the Peloponnesian War, he said. And so, the classical world provides many insights for the contemporary world on the subjects of war, revolution, and peace.

Today, the study of military history is waning in higher education, Hanson said, noting that peace studies programs in U.S. universities outnumber military history courses by about 30-to-1. Some critics, he said, believe that the study of war betrays a “morbid curiosity about death and war.”

That view, Hanson said, is akin to saying someone studies oncology because they like tumors.

“Rather, they go into oncology because they want to prevent cancer,” he said.

Victor Davis Hanson is also the chairman of the Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group at the Hoover Institution.