This revolutionary idea of Western citizenship—replete with ever more rights and responsibilities—would provide superb manpower for growing legions and a legal framework that would guarantee that the men who fought felt that they themselves in a formal and contractual sense had ratified the conditions of their own battle service. The ancient Western world would soon come to define itself by culture rather than by race, skin color, or language. That idea alone would eventually bring enormous advantages to its armies on the battlefield. (p. 122)

However he stated in 2008 that he "disagreed with many of the decisions made about the Iraq war" such as the dissolution of the old Iraqi army. United States education and classical studies
Hanson co-authored the book Who Killed Homer? with John Heath. Hanson writes two weekly columns one for National Review and one syndicated by Tribune Media Services and has been publiVictor Davis Hansond in The New York Times The Wall Street Journal Commentary American Heritage City Journal The American Spectator Policy Review the Claremont Review of Books The New Criterion and The Weekly Standard among other publications.

Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5 1953) is an American military historian columnist political essayist and former classics professor a scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a commentator on modern warfare and contemporary politics for National Review and other media outlets. Hanson is also a farmer (growing raisin grapes on a family farm in Selma California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism.