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Who Killed Homer?  By  cover art

Who Killed Homer?

By: Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath
Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
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Publisher's summary

For over two millennia in the West, familiarity with the literature, philosophy, and values of the Classical World has been synonymous with education itself. The traditions of the Greeks explain why Western Culture’s unique tenets of democracy, capitalism, civil liberty, and constitutional government are now sweeping the globe. Yet the general public in America knows less about its cultural origins than ever before, as Classical education rapidly disappears from our high school and university curricula.

Acclaimed classicists Hanson and Heath raise an impassioned call to arms: if we lose our knowledge of the Greeks, we lose our understanding of who we are. With straightforward advice and informative reading lists, the authors present a highly useful primer for anyone who wants more knowledge of Classics, and thus of the beauty and perils of our own culture.

©1998 Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Who Killed Homer?

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Required reading

This book is a searing indictment of a whole generation of careerist "Classicists" who have done incalculable damage to the cause of Classical wisdom in our lifetime. The book is well written and researched and presents a pragmatic picture of the state of Classical Studies in today's Western academic milieu. That said, this book is also an inspirational clarion call to arms for those inclined to gird themselves in the panoply of Greek wisdom, and who burn to spread the fire of Greek learning far and wide. If this book doesn't goad you into action, nothing will.

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16 people found this helpful

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  • 06-11-16

Perfect

Interesting and entertaining book. Most excellent narrator. Red meat of a certain sort. (The sort I most like.) You will laugh, lament, and be invigorated.

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12 people found this helpful

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Great book on the liberal's destruction of the cla

This book outlines the problems with modern liberal distortions of the classics and how they have contributed to the destruction of a classical education. The only improvement I can recommend is that the author should update with a second edition.

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12 people found this helpful

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"Intuitive and enlightening"

VDH abd Heath do a good job of describing the wisdom of the Greeks and why we're not studying them like generations past. Specifically why the very educators hired to teach the classics have failed. There is also blame directed at parents and culture in general. The authors also suggest a list of common sense solutions for educators. I found this book interesting but also VERY entertaining. If you are a fan of postmodernism, this book will turn your stomach or correct you. If you are a mediocre college professor or academic middle manager who prefers conferences to the classroom, you will also be enlightened. You have been warned.

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7 people found this helpful

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Solutions, not just complaints

The authors spend the fist 4/5s of the book detailing how the study of Classics has lost its way but they provide an in-depth and holistic solution on how to rebuild the academy in the last fifth.

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Answer. Audible killed Homer.

Perhaps I am not smart enough for this one, but to me the middle of this book is an endless stream of Greek proverbs strung together in a bizarre order. Maybe this is a great textbook, and the narrator was excellent, but I returned it after about 4 hours. I am a big fan of VDH and have read a few of his books hardcopy and enjoyed them, but this book wasn't for me. Returned.

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A Polemic Against Progressive Classicism

The authors' thesis that the decline of the Classics in the West is a result of our inability to truly heed the lessons of the Greeks is intriguing. The authors are at their strongest when they analyze the current state of a Classical education, insisting that specialization, echo-chamberesque publication, and general absence in the classroom have killed Homer. I chuckled quite a bit when they attacked the discipline of learning Greek and Latin, remembering my own similar experiences. It is worth mentioning that their want to employ more generalists and less specialists is also strongly argued. However, their argument frequently devolves into a polemic against the progressive ideologies that have caused new avenues of inquiry which have expanded the discipline, such as the new readings of the classical content made by feminist, Marxist, or even decontructionist scholars, to name a few. Although, there is room to argue about the significance of some of their contributions brought forth since, their value as a new lens in which to consider the Greeks should not be understated. The authors resort to straw man arguments, rhetorical questioning, whataboutism, and confirmation bias to further their aims. The neoconservative ideology that helped motivate this study have not aged well in 2022; where democracy's limitations are being exploited by competing special interests, many once dismissed/inherited cultural legacies are now mounting challenges to American hegemony, and alternative power dynamics are being explored between work and labor after a nasty virus forced us to do so. Like the authors, I do believe help can come from the Greeks. But, as many of the same charges are being levied today against the forces driving a university education, so many years later, real world application is absent in this diatribe and ultimately we're still left searching.

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Homer Saved by VDH

Victor Davis Hanson is crucial to saving Western Civilizaton. He helps do so with WKH

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Thorough study of classicism and society

Highly recommended to everyone interested in the affects of the loss of classicism practiced in western Universities.

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Very Interesting !

A very interesting book. I studied the Greek Language in college as a Theology student. However have not studied as much Greek culture or history. I agree with his perspective on the American education system. A bit long but definitely educational.

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1 person found this helpful