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{{Short description|American classicist (born 1953)}}
{{Other people}}
'''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 ==
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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 is a frequent guest on talk radio shows across the United States. He has lectured at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] He also appeared regularly on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''[[Politically Incorrect]]'' with [[Bill Maher]]., Thorntonand is a regular contributor to the conservative website CaliforniaRepublic.org.<ref name=bio/>
 
Thornton lives in [[Fresno]] with his wife and two sons.<ref name=bio>[http://www.fresnostate.net/Classics/Biographies.htm Biography] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060814195326/http://www.fresnostate.net/Classics/Biographies.htm |date=August 14, 2006 }}. [[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>▼
{{see also|Eurabia}}
▲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/>
 
Thornton is a strong critic of the [[Presidency of Barack Obama|Obama administration]]. He wrote on February 10, 2009:
{{quote|So far, we have heard nothing from the Obama team that suggests they will be any more successful than previous administrations in thwarting the designs of our enemies. Instead, look for more talk, more summits, even more agreements that, in the end, will leave us weaker and our enemies stronger.<ref>{{cite web|title=Foreign Policy as Magical Thinking|first=Bruce|last=Thornton|publisher=''[[FrontPage Magazine]]''|url=http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=33977|date=February 10, 2009|accessdate=August 19, 2009}}</ref></blockquote>}}
 
In June 2015 Thornton published an article lamenting the takeover of American academia by followers of [[Edward Said]].<ref>[http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/bruce-thornton/the-postcolonial-rot-spreads-beyond-middle-east-studies/ www.frontpagemag.com]</ref>
 
== Publications ==
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* ''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 InstitutinInstitution: Democracy's Dangers and Discontents]</ref>
 
Thornton has written for numerous publications including [[National Review Online]], ''[[Heterodoxy (magazine)|Heterodoxy]]'', ''The National Herald''{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}, ''[[The Washington Times]]'', the ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'', ''Helios Magazine''{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}, ''[[Arion (journal)|Arion]]'', ''[[The Jewish Press]]'', ''[[The San Francisco Examiner]]'', ''[[The American Enterprise]]'', ''The University Bookman''{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}}, ''[[Religious Studies Review]]'', ''[[Intercollegiate Review]]'', ''[[The American Journal of Philology]]'',<ref name=bio/> ''[[City Journal (New York)|City Journal]]'',<ref>{{cite webmagazine|publishermagazine=''[[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://frontpagemagwww.com/bioAuthorlinformale.aspx?AUTHID=3149eu/the-weakness-of-the-west-an-interview-with-bruce-thornton/|title=The weakness of the West: An interview with Bruce Thornton|publisherfirst=Niram|last=Ferretti|work=L''[[FrontPage Magazine]]''informale|accessdatedate=AugustJune 1911, 20092017}}</ref>
 
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
 
==External links==
* {{C-SPAN|brucethornton9265124}}▼
* [http://greekodyssey.typepad.com/my_greek_odyssey/2007/03/an_interview_wi.html "An interview with Bruce S. Thornton"]. [http://greekodyssey.typepad.com/my_greek_odyssey/ My Greek Odyssey]. Posted 20 March 2007.
▲* {{C-SPAN|brucethornton}}
 
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American essayists]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American male writersessayists]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:California State University, Fresno people]]
[[Category:Hoover Institution people]]
[[Category:Writers from California]]
[[Category:Theorists on Western civilization]]
[[Category:People from Fresno, California]]
[[Category:ConservatismCalifornia inState theUniversity, UnitedFresno Statesfaculty]]
[[Category:EurabiaHistorians from California]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:FrontPage Magazine people]]
[[Category:National Review people]]
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