The depth of Hoover’s scholarship is reflected in the many books published by our fellows year in and year out on a broad variety of topics and issues. These timely works offer insight on the most pressing issues in public policy.
Check out this selection of books published by Hoover scholars in 2019:
The Case for Trump
by Victor Davis Hanson
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the United States -- and an extremely successful president.
The Politics of Institutional Reform: Katrina, Education, and the Second Face of Power
by Terry M. Moe
Monday, April 1, 2019
In this ground-breaking analysis, Terry Moe treats Hurricane Katrina as a natural experiment that offers a rare opportunity to learn about the role of power in the politics of institutional reform. When Katrina hit, it physically destroyed New Orleans’ school buildings, but it also destroyed the vested-interest power that had long protected the city’s abysmal education system from major reform. With the constraints of power lifted, decision makers who had been incremental problem-solvers turned into revolutionaries, creating the most innovative school system in the entire country.
How Public Policy Became War
by David Davenport, Gordon Lloyd
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
As a response to the Great Depression and an expression of executive power, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal is widely understood as a turning point in American history. In How Public Policy Became War, David Davenport and Gordon Lloyd go even further, calling the New Deal “America’s French Revolution,” refashioning American government and public policy in ways that have grown to epic proportions today.
Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency
by Larry Diamond
Monday, June 10, 2019
From America’s leading scholar of democracy, a personal, passionate call to action against the rising authoritarianism that challenges our world order—and the very value of liberty. Ill Winds' core argument is stark: the defense and advancement of democratic ideals relies on U.S. global leadership. If we do not reclaim our traditional place as the keystone of democracy, today's authoritarian swell could become a tsunami, providing an opening for Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and their admirers to turn the twenty-first century into a dark time of despotism.
China's Influence and American Interests
by Larry Diamond, Orville Schell
Thursday, August 1, 2019
While Americans are generally aware of China’s ambitions as a global economic and military superpower, few understand just how deeply and assertively that country has already sought to influence American society. As the authors of this volume write, it is time for a wake-up call. In documenting the extent of Beijing’s expanding influence operations inside the United States, they aim to raise awareness of China’s efforts to penetrate and sway a range of American institutions: state and local governments, academic institutions, think tanks, media, and businesses.
Defining Moments
by Bertrand M. Patenaude
Thursday, August 15, 2019
A century ago, amid the devastation of World War I, Herbert Hoover established a collection of library and archival materials at Stanford University devoted to the causes and consequences of war. Founded as the Hoover War Collection in 1919, the institution has evolved into one of the world’s premier research centers devoted to the advanced study of politics, economics, and international affairs.
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
by General Jim Mattis, Bing West
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis--the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time--and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine.
To Build a Better World
by Condoleezza Rice, Philip Zelikow
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Two of America's leading scholar-diplomats, Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, have combed sources in several languages, interviewed leading figures, and drawn on their own firsthand experience to bring to life the choices that molded the contemporary world. Zeroing in on the key moments of decision, the might-have-beens, and the human beings working through them, they explore both what happened and what could have happened, to show how one world ended and another took form.
Leadership in War: Essential Lessons from Those Who Made History
by Andrew Roberts
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
A comparison of nine leaders who led their nations through the greatest wars the world has ever seen and whose unique strengths--and weaknesses--shaped the course of human history, from the bestselling, award-winning author of Churchill and Napoleon.
How to Be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century
by Frank Dikötter
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. In the twentieth century, as new technologies allowed leaders to place their image and voice directly into their citizens' homes, a new phenomenon appeared where dictators exploited the cult of personality to achieve the illusion of popular approval without ever having to resort to elections.
