Who could figure the odds that a man who grew up in the San Joaquin Valley not ten miles from Victor Davis Hanson would, like the good Dr. Hanson, grow up to become a classicist, teach at California State University at Fresno, and write wonderful books on the mess we’re in? Meet Bruce Thornton. One of Victor’s best friends, Bruce is my guest this week on Uncommon Knowledge. Our subject: Bruce’s new book about Europe, Decline and Fall.
The degeneration of Europe is a familiar subject to anyone who has been reading Mark Steyn, but Bruce comes at the matter from a different angle than does Mark, concentrating less the collapse of the European population than on the collapse of European belief. “If traditional Christianity is discarded,” Bruce asks in today’s opening segment, “then what will unify Europeans?” A painfully good question. Take a look.