ABOUT THE HOOVER HISTORY LAB

The Hoover History Lab is not a traditional academic department but instead functions as a hub for research, teaching, and convening—in person and online, in the classroom and in print. The Lab studies and uses history to inform public policy, develops next-generation scholars, and reinforces the work of Hoover’s world-class historians to inform scholarship and the teaching of history at Stanford and beyond.

The Lab’s work is driven by its principal investigators, who spearhead research and research-based policy projects, as outlined below. The Lab also encompasses a strong cohort of “staff scientist-equivalents”:  research fellows ranging from the most senior, world-renowned scholars to a full slate of exciting next-generation talents who bring fresh, multifaceted insights to our research. Rounding out our team, some of our postdoctoral scholars serve as research and teaching fellows (learn more about out upcoming courses here), and we also leverage the talents of exceptional Stanford undergraduates as our student fellows, who participate in leading-edge research, just as in a scientific laboratory.

This full-range approach to personnel, spanning all ages and levels of experience, ensures that the mission of the lab carries forward into the future and across to other institutions with a positive, powerful impact.

PRIORITY WORKING GROUPS

Three key research projects spearhead the work of the Hoover History Lab.

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The Applied History Working Group, led by principal investigator Niall Ferguson, seeks to apply historical research to contemporary policy challenges.

Under the leadership of Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson, the Applied History Working Group aims to conduct and disseminate historical research on issues of national and international concern; provide concrete recommendations on the basis of research and discussion; and use Hoover's unique situation to convene academic experts, policy makers, and interested private sector actors both at Stanford and in Washington, DC. 

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The Military History in Contemporary Conflict Working Group, led by principal investigator Victor Davis Hanson, applies historical analysis to contemporary challenges in national security.

The careful study of military history offers a way of analyzing modern war and peace that is often underappreciated in this age of technological determinism. Yet the result leads to a more in-depth and dispassionate understanding of contemporary wars, one that explains how particular military successes and failures of the past can be often germane, sometimes misunderstood, or occasionally irrelevant in the context of the present.

Chaired by Victor Davis Hanson, the Military History in Contemporary Conflict Working Group examines how knowledge of past military operations can influence contemporary public policy decisions concerning current conflicts.

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Led by Hoover History Lab director, principal investigator, and senior fellow Stephen Kotkin, the Global Futures Working Group offers both a research program on the world’s geopolitical historical roots and trajectory and a framework for adding new research projects at Hoover. It is the rubric under which the suite of History Lab courses taught by our top leaders and our up-and-coming research and teaching fellows are run.

By exploring geopolitics and geoeconomics, institutions and technologies, and citizenship and leadership, this project sheds light upon the key drivers of historical continuity or change, especially the roles of contingency, chance, and choice versus long-term underlying structures. Our work examines how people have identified and utilized levers of power to try to shift the larger system, what a system is, and how complex systems behave.

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FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Hoover History Lab Research & Teaching Fellowship

The Hoover Institution is seeking outstanding post-doctoral scholars for appointments at the rank of Research Fellow for the Hoover History Lab. The term of the appointment is one year and may be renewed. Scholars will be associated with the Hoover History Lab’s project “Global Futures – History, Statecraft, System,” encompassing a history of the world from the 18th century to the present.

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