Bruce Thornton (classicist): Difference between revisions

'''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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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>

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>

* ''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 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://frontpagemagwww.comlinformale.eu/bioAuthor.aspx?AUTHID=3149|archivethe-weakness-url=https:of-the-west-an-interview-with-bruce-thornton//archive.today/20120709060157/http://frontpagemag.com/bioAuthor.aspx?AUTHID=3149|url-statustitle=dead|archive-date=JulyThe 9,weakness of the West: An interview with 2012|title=Bruce Thornton|publisherfirst=Niram|last=Ferretti|work=L''[[FrontPage Magazine]]''informale|accessdatedate=AugustJune 1911, 20092017}}</ref>

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