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Hoover Institution . . . ideas defining a free society
Stanford University

Our history

The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace within Stanford University is a public policy research center devoted to advanced study of politics, economics, and political economy—both domestic and foreign—as well as international affairs. Founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who later became the thirty-first president of the United States, the Institution originated as a specialized collection of documents on the causes and consequences of World War I. The collection grew rapidly and soon became one of the largest archives and most complete libraries in the world devoted to political, economic, and social change in the twentieth century.

By the late 1940s, the richness of the collection had led to the recruitment of scholars to use the documents in their work. Expanding its agenda to include specific research endeavors led to a vast accumulation of knowledge, and the Hoover Institution became one of the first and most distinguished academic centers in the United States dedicated to public policy research. Today, with its world-renowned group of scholars and ongoing programs of policy-oriented research, the Hoover Institution puts its accumulated knowledge to work as a prominent contributor to the world marketplace of ideas defining a free society.

Mission and philosophy

The Hoover Institution's academic character, unique among policy research organizations, allows freedom of inquiry unencumbered by burdensome hierarchy.

Now more than four decades old, Herbert Hoover's 1959 statement to the Board of Trustees of Stanford University on the purpose and scope of the Hoover Institution (see text below) continues to guide and define its mission in the twenty-first century.

The principles of individual, economic, and political freedom; private enterprise; and representative government were fundamental to the vision of the Institution's founder. By collecting knowledge, generating ideas, and disseminating both, the Institution seeks to secure and safeguard peace, improve the human condition, and limit government intrusion into the lives of individuals.

"This Institution supports the Constitution of the United States, its Bill of Rights, and its method of representative government. Both our social and economic systems are based on private enterprise from which springs initiative and ingenuity..Ours is a system where the Federal Government should undertake no governmental, social or economic action, except where local government, or the people, cannot undertake it for themselves. The overall mission of this Institution is, from its records, to recall the voice of experience against the making of war, and by the study of these records and their publication, to recall man's endeavors to make and preserve peace, and to sustain for America the safeguards of the American way of life. This Institution is not, and must not be, a mere library. But with these purposes as its goal, the Institution itself must constantly and dynamically point the road to peace, to personal freedom, and to the safeguards of the American system."

—Herbert Hoover, Founder

Objectives

The Hoover Institution strives to address the "big picture," offering ideas having broad, sweeping applications and internally consistent implications.

The Institution's overarching purposes are:

• To collect the requisite sources of knowledge pertaining to economic, political, and social changes in societies at home and abroad, as well as to understand their causes and consequences
• To analyze the effects of government actions relating to public policy
• To generate, publish, and disseminate ideas that encourage positive policy formation using reasoned arguments and intellectual rigor, converting conceptual insights into practical initiatives judged to be beneficial to society
• To convey to the public, the media, lawmakers, and others an understanding of important public policy issues and to promote vigorous dialogue

"Ideas have consequences, and a free flow of competing ideas leads to an evolution of policy consequences affecting the well-being of society. The Hoover Institution endeavors to be a preeminent contributor of ideas having positive consequences."

—John Raisian, Director

Location

As part of the Stanford community, significant resources are available to Hoover, including seventeen libraries, numerous academic forums, and opportunities for collaboration with outstanding faculty and students.

The Hoover Institution is a three-building complex consisting of Hoover Tower, the Lou Henry Hoover Building, and the Herbert Hoover Memorial Building. Located on the Stanford University campus, it is part of one of the world's great institutions of higher learning.

Hoover Tower, one of the most recognizable landmarks on the Stanford campus, stands an impressive 285 feet tall, topped by a forty-eight-bell carillon. Dedicated in 1941, the tower (72,000 square feet) houses the Hoover Institution Library, as well as the Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover exhibit rooms.

The Lou Henry Hoover Building (60,000 square feet) was dedicated in 1967. It houses the renowned East Asian Collection as well as offices for scholars and curators. The Herbert Hoover Memorial Building (102,000 square feet) was dedicated in 1978. In addition to offices and seminar rooms, it includes an auditorium and an exhibit pavilion and houses the Hoover Institution Archives.

"The purpose of this Institution is to promote peace. Its records stand as a challenge to those who promote war. They should attract those who search for peace. I therefore dedicate this building [Hoover Tower] to these purposes."

—Herbert Hoover, Founder

Library and archives

The library's strength is its unparalleled holdings of special collections—street literature of revolutionary change, underground publications, memoirs and oral histories, personal diaries, and papers of leading personalities.

Attracting an average of seven thousand researchers every year from some forty different countries and nearly every state, the Hoover Library and Archives is an international treasure. The library, with more than 1.6 million volumes, and the archives, with more than fifty million documents, constitute one of the world's largest repositories (25 miles of shelving) of materials on political, economic, and social change in modern times.

The collections are open to the public and organized into seven areas: Africa, the Americas, East Asia, East-Central Europe, the Middle East, Russia/Commonwealth of Independent States, and Western Europe.

Since the founding of the Institution, collecting efforts have sought to document the greatest issues of our time: war, revolution, and peace. Today, prospects for a peaceful future depend largely on whether free institutions and values, given the chance, will take root in regions of the world where they have never before—or only briefly—existed.

To document this struggle, the Hoover Institution's collecting program focuses on the political and economic transitions occurring worldwide, but especially in former and evolving communist countries. Equally important is developing collections that shed light on the political and economic effects of cultural conflicts throughout the world.

"The documentation I have examined at the Hoover Institution is outstanding and, in many respects, unique.... I look forward to utilizing its special collections and library materials for the rest of my life."

—Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Honorary Fellow

Programmatic themes

Hoover's West Coast location permits a detached view of the Washington public policy landscape, encouraging ideas that emphasize long-term solutions, not nominal quick fixes.

Two of Hoover's three overarching programs, American Institutions and Economic Performance and Democracy and Free Markets, address issues involving the study of politics, economics, and their interrelationships (that is, political economy) in the United States and other countries. Within these programs, specific themes have evolved, including:

• The rule of law and property rights
• Societies based on individualism rather than classes, thus confronting the issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and so forth
• The role of a society's culture and values
• Government's performance on behalf of society, addressing issues of accountability, efficiency, and representation
• The appropriate scope of government's involvement in areas such as education, health care, and the environment as it provides public services and regulates private enterprise
• Economic growth and tax policy
• Capital formation—financial, human, and intellectual
• Wealth redistribution with regard to tax, social, health, and demographic public policies

The third overarching program, International Rivalries and Global Cooperation, involves studies of foreign policy addressing issues of security, trade and commerce, and the rule of law.

"The Hoover Institution is simultaneously one of our nation's great centers of scholarly endeavor and a prime example of the analytical thinking and practical experience that informs issues of public policy and leads to sound decisions."

—George P. Shultz, Distinguished Fellow

Institutional initiatives

Hoover fellows question both the legitimacy and the competency of government solutions, having observed the tendency for government to grow persistently and take on more responsibilities to "solve" society's problems.

Substantial financial and intellectual resources are directed to new undertakings consistent with the Institution's overarching programs and specific themes. Hoover Initiatives represent multi-year projects in which Hoover fellows and other scholars focus on specific and important topics pertaining to our mission. The result is increased output in the form of institutional book projects, which augment the scholarship that originates from Hoover fellows' individual research agendas.

The following Hoover Initiatives are now in place:

• American Public Education
• Property Rights, the Rule of Law, and Economic Performance
• The End of Communism
• The National Security Forum
• Transition to Democratic Capitalism
• American Individualism and Values
• Accountability of Government to Society
• Capital Formation, Tax Policy, and Economic Growth
• International Rivalries and Global Cooperation

"There is little importance to men's lives except the accomplishments they leave to posterity."

—Herbert Hoover, Founder

people

The people at Hoover reflect a diversity of scholarship that combines research ranging from basic to applied, from theoretical to empirical, and from abstract to descriptive.

A remarkably varied and distinguished group of people at the Hoover Institution collect, study, debate, refine, and disseminate ideas.

Approximately one hundred scholars explore ideas that shape positive change in public policy. Their distinction is recognized through membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Education, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences, as well as recipients of the Nobel Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom, and other prestigious awards.

Nearly seventy librarians, curators, archivists, and other specialists help meet the Institution's obligations to current and future generations of scholars by strengthening its collecting program, preserving its collections, and promoting their scholarly use.

More than eighty research support staff, ranging from research assistants to top administrators, assist and support the scholars in their work and help further the objectives of the Institution.

In sum, the approximately two hundred and fifty people of the Hoover Institution constitute a formidable array of talent and intelligence whose work resonates across our nation and around the world.

"The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is hard to match for sheer intellectual firepower."

—The Economist

Research appointments

Hoover's vitality of scholarship lies in bringing together differing disciplines—engaging resident fellows with visiting fellows, academic thinkers with policy practitioners, and idea generators with media commentators.

The strength of Hoover's research program lies in recruiting scholars of exceptional ability within the disciplines of economics, history, law, political science, and sociology. They work together, melding their individual expertise in an effort to understand interdisciplinary issues and shed light on important policy dilemmas of our time.

Resident Hoover fellows are the foundation of the research program. They are among the very best scholars and policy analysts in their fields; many hold joint appointments on the Stanford faculty.

Affiliated fellows—scholars from other research institutions and universities—offer expertise that complements, strengthens, and adds depth to that of the resident fellows. Affiliated fellows spend varying periods of time in residence at Hoover each year, with appointments that last a number of years.

Visiting fellows include a wide variety of U.S. and foreign scholars, diplomats, government officials, and other distinguished visitors who spend from a few weeks to a full year at Hoover, bringing with them a continual influx of expertise and ideas.

Media fellows are top print and broadcast journalists who typically spend a week at a time in residence at Hoover, giving them an opportunity to pursue their own projects in a new environment and acquaint themselves with the Institution and its research.

"The work of the Hoover Institution was an indispensable part of winning the Cold War for freedom.... Now, in the post-Cold War world, it is equally important to shore up our system's defenses by studying the threats it faces. Hoover has a vital contribution to make to this."

—Lady Margaret Thatcher, Honorary Fellow

Communications

Hoover serves as an educator of ideas defining a free society to the public at large, seeking to promote better understanding and wider discussion of important public policy issues.

Hoover scholars produce an impressive body of books, provocative essays, and in-depth articles that explore ideas with the potential to transform society. But unless those ideas are widespread, the opportunity to have an impact is lost. Consequently, the Institution disseminates its products through varied formats and means, including the following:

• The Hoover Institution publishes and markets a significant number of books and essays each year that communicate the ideas of Hoover scholars on domestic and international policy issues
• Hoover scholars write nearly six hundred editorial opinion articles each year that appear in major newspapers and magazines
• Hoover Digest: Research and Opinion on Public Policy, Hoover's award-winning quarterly, presents an overview of the research by Hoover scholars
• Weekly Essays, short articles by Hoover fellows on topical public policy issues, are featured in several national magazines and are syndicated to more than four hundred newspapers throughout the country
• Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover's public affairs television series, provides informed discussion on current public policy issues from a decidedly "outside the beltway" perspective
• The Hoover Institution's home page on the World Wide Web, located at www.hoover.org, supplies comprehensive information on the library and archives, the research endeavors, and all other outreach associated with the Institution

"Hoover has a demonstrated record of providing a stimulating environment for a collegial body of distinguished scholars. The result has been a steady stream of contributions to academic scholarship on the one hand and, at the same time, op-ed pieces, articles in the popular media, and pamphlets dealing with important issues of public policy."

—Milton Friedman, Senior Research Fellow

Finances

The Hoover Institution owes its distinctive character and present eminence to generous philanthropy, starting with Herbert Hoover himself and continuing with those who have inherited his commitment.

The Institution's annual budget for its programs and activities is approximately $25 million. In a typical year, the annual budget is expended as follows:

The Hoover Institution is supported by donations from individuals and their related foundations and corporations (approximately 40 percent); by payout from endowment funds, the market value of which exceeds $250 million (approximately 45 percent); and by a contribution from Stanford University dedicated to the library and archives (approximately 15 percent).

Gifts to the Hoover Institution are tax deductible. The Hoover Institution is part of Stanford University's tax-exempt status as a Section 501(c)(3) "public charity." For further information, please contact Hoover's Office of Development by telephone at 650.725.6715, by facsimile at 650.723.1952, or by e-mail at development@hoover.stanford.edu.

"The Hoover Institution has become very simply a unique national asset."

—Ronald Reagan, Honorary Fellow

© 2001 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University