Savior Generals: How a Rare Few Win Lost Wars

Victor Davis Hanson
Spring 2011 William E. Simon Distinguished Visiting Professor
School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University

Thursday, February 10, 2011
11 AM
Drescher Graduate Campus Auditorium
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California

Often in the darkest moments of a war—for example, the Athenians in August 480 B.C., or America in Korea during fall 1950—when events seem hopeless, a few gifted generals have almost alone turned around the entire course of a conflict. What then are the leadership qualities of a Themistocles, Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, or David Petraeus that enabled them to win when most others felt victory was impossible?

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and Professor Emeritus of Classics at California State University, Fresno. Among numerous awards, honors, and fellowships, Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 and the Bradley Prize in 2008.