Victor Davis Hanson on War and the World

The study of history began as purely military history, notes Victor Davis Hanson, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and the author of The Father of Us All. "There was no such thing as history apart from war." But, he argues, we have given military history short shrift, in our modern desire to perfect a Western world and make it free of conflict.

Hanson spoke to The Commonwealth Club on May 3, 2010, about war and its impact on society. You can watch the entire speech and audience Q&A session in the HD video below, in which he discusses the role of war in the world, what has and hasn't changed, and what it means for the conduct of nations.