Editing Bruce Thornton (classicist)

{{Short description|American classicist (born 1953)}}
'''Bruce S. Thornton''' (born August 2, 1953) is an American [[classicism|classicist]] at [[California State University, Fresno]], and research fellow at [[Stanford University]]'s [[Hoover Institution]].<ref>{{cite web
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== Biography ==
Thornton received a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in [[Latin]] from the [[University of California, Los Angeles|University of California at Los Angeles]] in 1975, and a [[PhD]] in [[Comparative Literature]] in 1983. He had studied Greek, Latin, and English literature for his doctorate.<ref name=bio/>

Currently Thornton is research fellow and W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow (2009–2010 and 2010–2011) at [[Stanford University]]'s [[Hoover Institution]].  He is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the [[David Horowitz Freedom Center]].

Thornton has lectured at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] He also appeared on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[Politically Incorrect]]'' with [[Bill Maher]], and is a contributor to the conservative website CaliforniaRepublic.org.<ref name=bio/>

Thornton lives in [[Fresno]] with his wife and two sons.<ref name=bio>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060814195326/http://www.fresnostate.net/Classics/Biographies.htm Biography]}}. [[California State University, Fresno]]: [http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/mcll/faculty-staff/resident/thornton.html Bruce Thornton's page at Fresno State] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031085524/http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/mcll/faculty-staff/resident/thornton.html |date=2014-10-31 }}. Accessed October 31, 2014.</ref>

== Work ==
===History===
Thornton has described his opinions as opposed to the dominant, mainstream historical tradition about the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]].  He is an admirer of historian [[Christopher Dawson]].  He also subscribes to the [[Leo Strauss#Ancients and moderns|'Athens versus Jerusalem' thesis]] of [[Leo Strauss]], in which the interplay between [[Ancient Greece|classical Greek]] ideologies of [[rationality]] and the [[Judaeo-Christian]] spiritual philosophies resulted in the creation of [[Western philosophy|Western civilization]].<ref name=hoover>[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/16782686.html Peter Robinson interviews Fresno State Classicist Bruce Thornton about his new book Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Suicide] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011193127/http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/16782686.html |date=October 11, 2008 }}. [[Hoover Institution]]: ''[[Uncommon Knowledge]]''. Filmed on March 6, 2008. Accessed August 19, 2009.</ref>

===Europe===
Thornton believes that the declining belief in interpersonal ideals such as [[patriotism|national pride]] and in religious ideals such as Christianity has led non-American [[Western world|Westerners]] to either substitute "political religions" such as [[communism]] and [[fascism]] into their lives or abandon having moral ideals altogether. This, in his opinion, weakens them against pressure from threats such as [[Islam in Europe#Muslim populations in Europe|increasing immigration to Europe by Muslims]] that have higher [[birth rate]]s than native Europeans. He has said, "If all of their goods are material, right, what material good is worth dying for and what material good is worth killing for?"<ref name=hoover/> His book ''Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide'' has been described as part of the "[[Eurabia]] genre".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/01/04/eurabian-follies/|title=Eurabian Follies|date=4 January 2010|work=Foreign Policy}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkcqEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22decline+and+fall%22+bruce+thornton+%22eurabia%22&pg=PA58|page=58|title=White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism|first=Andreas|last=Malm|year=2021|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781839761744}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2CYEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22decline+and+fall%22+bruce+thornton+%22eurabia%22&pg=PT77|title=Muslim Women in Contemporary North America: Controversies, Clichés, and Conversations|first=Meena|last=Sharify-Funk|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2022|isbn=9781000801446}}</ref>

== Publications ==
Thornton has published several well-received books.<ref name=bio/>
* ''Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality'' (Westview Press, 1997)
* ''Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge'' (ISI Books, 1999)
* ''Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization'' (Encounter Books, 2000)
* ''Humanities Handbook'' (Prentice-Hall, 2000)
* ''Bonfire of the Humanities. Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age,'' with John Heath and [[Victor Davis Hanson]] (ISI Books, 2001)
* ''Searching for Joaquin: Myth and History in California'' (Encounter Books, 2003)
* ''Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow Motion Suicide'' (Encounter Books, 2008)
* ''The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens, Munich, and Obama’s America'' (Encounter Books, 2011) {{ISBN|1-59403-519-9}}
* ''Democracy's Dangers and Discontents: The Tyranny of the Majority From the Greeks to Obama'' (Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 2014).<ref>[http://www.hoover.org/research/democracys-dangers-and-discontents-tyranny-majority-greeks-obama Hoover Institution: Democracy's Dangers and Discontents]</ref>

Thornton has written for numerous publications including [[National Review Online]], ''[[Heterodoxy (magazine)|Heterodoxy]]'', ''[[The Washington Times]]'', the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', ''[[Arion (journal)|Arion]]'', ''[[The Jewish Press]]'', ''[[The San Francisco Examiner]]'', ''[[The American Enterprise]]'', ''[[Religious Studies Review]]'', ''[[Intercollegiate Review]]'', ''[[The American Journal of Philology]]'',<ref name=bio/> ''[[City Journal (New York)|City Journal]]'',<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[City Journal (New York)|City Journal]]|url=http://www.city-journal.org/author_index.php?author=584|title=Bruce S. Thornton|accessdate=August 19, 2009|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001131127/http://www.city-journal.org/author_index.php?author=584|archivedate=October 1, 2009}}</ref> and ''[[FrontPage Magazine]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linformale.eu/the-weakness-of-the-west-an-interview-with-bruce-thornton/|title=The weakness of the West: An interview with Bruce Thornton|first=Niram|last=Ferretti|work=L'informale|date=June 11, 2017}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{C-SPAN|9265124}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornton, Bruce}}
[[Category:1953 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American essayists]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American male essayists]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Hoover Institution people]]
[[Category:Theorists on Western civilization]]
[[Category:Writers from Fresno, California]]
[[Category:California State University, Fresno faculty]]
[[Category:Historians from California]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:FrontPage Magazine people]]
[[Category:National Review people]]
[[Category:American classical scholars]]