Who Killed Homer Summary

The book, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, is written by Victor Davis Hanson, and John Heath. The book is about why the Classics are dying, if it’s not dead already; what actions would need to be taken in order to take the Classics off of life support, and what would need to be done in order to teach newer generations about Classics. Both Hanson, and Heath are Classicist themselves whom worked as professors teaching Classics to students back in the early 1970’s and 1980’s. These two present an argument to the audience that the reason for the fall of Classical Education in modern day is due to the fact of ignorance of Greek wisdom, the demise of Classical learning is real and quantifiable, and the Classicist themselves are the blame for why there aren’t many people majoring in Classics.

The authors of the book claim that Homer is dead in the first chapter and they give

This book has given me a greater understanding on the Classics as a whole. The book touches on a plethora of classical topics in chapter 2, and often compares the western civilization to our west. The author also gave me better understanding of the time periods. I didn’t know slaves had better treatment than the free people in Persia at the time, or that war was an enormous role in Classics age. From the western civilization class I’ve took earlier this year, this books discuss the importance of money in a war, when Sparta beat Athens, or when Rome beat the Carthaginians because of the new money they received to build ships. Economy is the leading factor of who will win a war, because a side loses only when they run out of money. This book also brought up equal rights for men and women found in Plato’s Republic, but it disclosed feminist claims. This book didn’t change the way I just think about classics, but changed how I think about the modern world itself. The books seem to be more modern than the books that were written a few centuries