Bruce Thornton
Professor of Classics and Humanities
Office: Peters Business Building, Room 437
Phone: (559) 278-7037 |
FAX: (559) 278-7878
email:
brucet@csufresno.edu
Coordinator,
Humanities Studies
Classical Studies Program
Faculty
MCLL Faculty
Resident
Bio
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 wasa 2009-2011 Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at StanfordUniversity's Hoover Institution, where he currently is a research fellow. His on-line columns can be accessed here, and also at this link.
Education
December 1983, Ph.D. Comparative Literature: Greek, Latin, English, UCLA
December 1975: B.A. Latin, UCLA, magna cum laude
Employment
2000- present: Professor of Classics and Humanities
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Humanities Program,
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures,
California State University, Fresno
1996-2000: Professor of Classics and Humanities, Department Chairman, CSUF
1991-96: Associate Professor of Classics and Humanities, CSUF
1989-91: Assistant Professor of Classics and Humanities, CSUF
1985-89: Lecturer, English Department, CSUF
1982-85: Part-time lecturer, English Department, CSUF
1983-85: Lecturer, English Department, Reedley Community College
1980-82: Teaching Associate, Comparative Literature Department, UCLA
Publications
Books
The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Greece, Munich, and Obama's America (New York: Encounter Books, 2011)
Decline and Fall: Europe’s Slow-Motion Suicide (New York: Encounter Books, 2007)
A Student’s Guide to the Classics (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003)
Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta, and History in California (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003)
Bonfire of the Humanities. Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age, with John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2001). Selection of the Conservative Book Club
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). Selection of the Conservative Book Club
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
Essays and Reviews
"The European Delusion," The Insider(Summer/Fall 2011)
"The Bright Foundation," The New Criterion (May 2011)
America the delusional? Overcoming our European Temptation, First Principles, No 37 (March 2011)
Covenants Without Swords? The Hoover Digest (Spring 2010)
Venusian Folly, The New Criterion (February 2010)
Kingdom of iron and rust, The New Criterion (October 2009)
Almost an Imperator, The New Criterion, (May 2009)
“Clever, Enduring Odysseus,” The Claremont Review of Books (Winter 2008/09)
Review of A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors, Anthony Blond, First Things (March 2009)
“The Allah That Failed,” The New Individualist (June 2008)
“Gathering Storm,” The National Review (16 June 2008)
“Can Rational Individualism Survive?” The New Individualist (May 2008)
“Epistle to the Muslims: Christian Leaders Abase Themselves before Islam,” Chicago Sun Times (2 December 2007)
“Of Arms and a Man,” The New Criterion (June 2007)
“Cultivated Taste,” Claremont Review of Books (Spring 2007)
Review of The West at War, ed. Bradley C. S. Watson, Claremont Review of Books (Spring 2007)
“The Roots of Jihadist Terror,” The New Individualist (Fall 2006)
“New World, Old Myths,” Claremont Review of Books (Summer 2006)
“Huck Finn and the Nuremberg Rally,” The New Individualist (March 2006)
“The Indictment of the West,” The New Individualist (Fall, 2005)
Review of Sport and Festival in the Ancient Greek World, ed. David Phillips and David Pritchard, Museion 3.5 (2005)
“Multiculturalism and its Discontents,” The New Individualist (July, 2005)
Review of One Nation Under Therapy, Sally Satel and Christine Hoff Sommers, Commentary (October 2005)
“Critical Consciousness and Civic Education,” in Civic Education and Culture, ed. Bradley C. S. Watson (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2005)
“Olympic Games: Athletics, Ancient and Modern,” The Weekly Standard (7 June 2004)
“Anti-Americanism and Popular Culture,” in Understanding Anti-Americanism. Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad, ed. Paul Hollander (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004)
Preface to The Inversion of Consciousness from Dante to Derrida, Hugh Mercer Cutler (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004)
“Labor is Life,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 10.1 (2003)
Review of Eros and Polis, Paul W. Ludwig, Museion 1 (2003)
“Sowing Terror at Home,” The Washington Times (16 March 2003)
“Metaparody,” The University Bookman, 42 (2002)
“The Limits of Diversity,” Black and White (October 1-23, 2002)
“Why the Cowboy Outfit Still Fits,” The London Guardian Editor (13 July 2002)
“The Cowboy Myth,” American Spectator (May/June 2002)
“The Beast is Dead—And That’s Fine,” AARP Bulletin (December 2001)
“The Last Days of Western Civ,” The University Bookman, 41.1-2 (2001)
“Making the Cinders Dance. The Wonder of Tom Wolf,” The National Review Online (21-22 July 2001)
“Tales Out of School,” Heterodoxy 8.9-10 (2001).
“Help Yourself. Outing the Advice Dispensers,” The National Review Online (3-4 March 2001).
“Political Man is Born,” The National Herald, 4.174 (3-4 February 2001), 11, 14, 19.
“The Critical Spirit,” The National Herald, 4.174 (3-4 February 2001), 35.
“The Birth of Freedom,” The National Herald, 4.174 (3-4 February 2001), 5.
“Weeding the Muses’ Garden,” Arion 8.2 (2000), 147-63.
"Greek Appetite and Its Discontents," Arion 7.3 (2000), 153-66.
"Rural Childhood When Character Outweighed Race," The San Francisco Examiner (27 December 1999), A-20.
"'The Western Cincinnatus': George Washington as Farmer and Soldier," with Victor Davis Hanson, in Patriot Sage. George Washington and the American Political Tradition, ed. Gary L. Gregg II and Matthew Spalding (Wilmington, DE: ISI Press, 1999).
"The Humble Hero," with Victor Davis Hanson, The American Enterprise Magazine, 10.6 (1999), 29-31.
Review of Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho, Jane McIntosh Snyder, Echos du Monde Classique/Classical Views, 18.2 (1999), 275-83.
"Marketing Pessimism," The University Bookman, 39.2 (1999), 10-13.
"Nobel Savage Redux," Heterodoxy, 7.2 (1999), 15.
"The False Goddess and Her Lost Paradise," Arion, 3rd series 7.1 (1999), 72-97.
Review of Bisexuality in the Ancient World, Eva Cantarella, Archives of Sexual History, 28.5 (October 1999).
"The Founders as Farmers: The Greek Georgic Tradition and the American Founders," in Vital Remnants: America's Founding and the Western Tradition (Wilmington, DE: ISI Press, 1999), 1-37.
Review of Reclaiming the Canon, Herman L. Sinaiko, Religious Studies Review, 25.1 (1999), 80.
"Twilight of the Professors," Intercollegiate Review, 34.2, (1999), 8-12.
"Pessimism Examined," Heterodoxy, 6.8 (1998), 14.
"The War Within: How Athenians Spent Their Leisure Time," The Washington Times (11 October 1998), B8.
"Defending the West," Heterodoxy, 6.3 (1998), 15.
"Cultivating Sophistry," Arion, 3rd Series 6.2 (1998), 186-209
"When Cupid Aims, You'd Better Duck," Los Angeles Times (14 February 1997)
"The Enemy is Us: The Betrayal of the Postmodern Clerks," Arion, 3rd Series, 5.1 (1997)
"Curse You, Christopher Columbus! History as Manichaean Melodrama," Measure, 109 (October 1992)
"Constructionism and Ancient Greek Sex," Helios, 18.2 (1991)
"Idolon Theatri: Foucault and the Classicists," Classical and Modern Literature, 12.1 (1991)
Review of Mourning and Panegyric, Celeste Marguerite Schenck, Classical and Modern Literature, 11.2 (1991)
"Rural Dialectic: Pastoral, Georgic, and the Shepheardes Calendar," Spenser Studies IX (1991)
"Pastoral or Georgic? Ford Madox Ford's The Last Post," English Language Notes, 26 (1988)
"A Rural Singing Match: Pastoral and Georgic in George Eliot's Adam Bede," Victorian Newsletter, 74 (1988)
"A Note on Vergil's Eclogue IV.42-45," American Journal of Philology, 109 (1988)
"Cold Pastoral: Theocritus' Cup and Keats's Urn," Classical and Modern Literature, 7.2 (1987)
On-line Reviews
A
Point in Time, David Horowitz
9/20/11
Showdown
With Evil, Jamie Glazoy
4/8/11
The
Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order, Daniel Mahoney
3/4/11
United in
Hate, Jamie Glazoy
6/5/09
The
Legacy of Islamic antisemitism, Andrew bostom
8/8/08
Religion
and the Age, George Weigel
6/27/08
Brother
Tariq, Caroline Fourest
2/21/08
Twilight
of the Nation State, Pierre Manent
1/29/08
Liberal
Fascism, Jonah Goldberg
1/10/08
Uncouth
Nation, Andrei S. Markovits
11/16/07
Cool
It, Bjorn Lomborg
9/18/07
Democracy’s
Good Name, Michael Mandelbaum
9/5/07
The
Death of the Grown-Up, Diana West
8/29/07
Defending
the West, Ibn Warraq
8/23/07
The
Al Qaeda Reader, Raymond Ibrahim
8/19/07
The
Truth About Muhammad, Robert Spencer
10/27/06
Do
as I Say (Not as I Do) by Peter Schweitzer
3/31/06
Black
Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell
12/7/05
The
Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims,
edited by Andrew G. Bostom
9/9/05
The
Myth of Islamic Tolerance, edited by Robert Spencer 8/5/05
South
Park Conservatives by Brian Anderson
6/28/05
Tower
of Babel by Dore Gold
6/20/05
Unspeakable.
Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror by Os Guinness
5/4/05
Eurabia:
The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or
3/29/05
Covering
the Intifada by Joshua Muravchik
2/4/05
The
Case for Democracy by Natan Sharansky
12/24/04
Brainwashed.
How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth by Ben Shapiro
10/8/04
Uncommon
Dissent. Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing edited by
William A. Dembski
8/13/04
The
Anti-Chomsky Reader, ed. by Peter Collier and David Horowitz
7/16/04
The
Return of Anti-Semitism by Gabriel Schoenfeld
6/11/04
Miniatures.
Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics by Daniel Pipes
5/28/04
The
French Betrayal of America by Kenneth R. Timmerman 4/30/04
In
Denial - Historians, Communism, and Espionage by John Earl Haynes
and Harvey Klehr 3/30/04
Anti-Americanism
by Jean-François Revel
2/16/04
The
Case For Israel by Alan Dershowitz
12/23/03
Coercing
Virtue. The Worldwide Rule of Judges by Robert H. Bork
12/8/03
Diversity.
The Invention of a Concept by Peter Wood
11/21/03
The
Real Environmental Crisis by Jack M. Hollander
11/1/03
