By: Alan Cheah
On April 17 at Fresno Pacific University, Dr. Michael Parenti will debate Dr. Victor Davis Hanson from a progressive versus conservative perspective.
Michael Parenti was born of Italian-American descent in 1933 in New York City. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He is an internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. Parenti is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. He has authored 22 books and some 300 articles. Topics examined in his works include the following:
• Theocracy and Other Religious Sins
• Democracy and Economic Power
• Imperialism and U.S. Interventionism
• Empires Past and Present
• Political Perceptions and Deceptions
• Ethnic-Class Experience
• Terrorism and Globalization
• Political Bias in the U.S. News Media
• Ideology and History
• Race, Gender and Class
• The Overthrow of Communism
• Fascism: Past and Present
His social and political philosophy is best summed up in his own words: “Here at home and throughout the world people are fighting back against the forces of wealth, privilege, and militarism—some because they have no choice, others because they would choose no other course but the one that leads to peace and justice.”
Victor Davis Hanson was born of Swedish-American descent in 1953 in Fowler, Calif., and grew up in Selma. He received a Ph.D. in the classics from Stanford University in 1980, farmed full-time for five years and then started his teaching career at Fresno State in 1984. While there, he initiated the classics program at the institution.
Hanson has written or edited 13 books and authored 170 articles, book reviews and newspaper editorials that have appeared in periodicals including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, American Heritage and the Weekly Standard. He is currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute. He has served as a visiting professor at Stanford and at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Hanson gained national prominence after 9/11. After a 2005 interview with Hanson, Alan W. Dowd of the Sagamore Institute of Policy Research said, “Victor Davis Hanson emerged from the relative obscurity of his academic post at Fresno State University on September 11, 2001, to become something akin to America’s ‘Historian-in-Chief.’ Spurred by a legion of eager editors, Hanson has translated his expertise in classical military history to the war on terror.”
Although still registered as a Democrat, Hanson staunchly supported George W. Bush and is more closely aligned with Republican viewpoints. He explains: “The Democratic Party reminds me of the Republicans circa 1965 or so—impotent, shrill, no ideas, conspiratorial, reactive, out-of-touch with most Americans, isolationist, and full of embarrassing spokesmen.”
Be prepared for an entertaining and spurring debate which no doubt will captivate our attention.
