Monday, November 24, 2025

Today, Ross Levine pens a column to America in the voice of President Herbert Hoover; the Hoover History Skills Academy calls for applications to its 2026 program for high school students; and a new short video based on the research of Dan Wang shows what it will take to revitalize manufacturing in the United States.

Freedom Frequency

Herbert Hoover Writes to America, 2025

In a new column at Freedom Frequency, Hoover Senior Fellow Ross Levine draws from history to give voice to Herbert Hoover, the president who defended his characteristic view of “rugged individualism” as the path to prosperity, responsibility, and human freedom. “History has not been gentle to me,” remarks Herbert Hoover, in an imagined letter, “but perhaps my experience offers you a clearer view. . . . Beware the seductions of easy government answers.” Levine’s letter, backed up by the correspondence, books, speeches, and other writings of the 31st president, offers a staunch defense of “the American spirit, unshackled.” In it, the voice of Hoover also stands up for trade, an independent Fed, a responsible level of debt, and limited executive-branch power. Read more here.

Revitalizing History

History Skills Academy 2026

The Hoover History Skills Academy 2026, a two-week learning opportunity for high school students, is now accepting applications. The early first-round deadline for applications is December 31, with the final applications due by February 28, 2026. Participating students master best practices for designing, researching, and writing a substantive historical research paper using the extraordinary historical materials in the famed Hoover Institution Library & Archives. The program is administered by the Hoover History Lab in partnership with The Concord Review, publishers of America’s only journal for exceptional historical research papers written by high-school students. Any history topic may be proposed for the research project, and all secondary-school students are eligible to apply. Learn more here.

Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies

Revitalizing American Manufacturing

Revitalizing US manufacturing requires more than subsidies or tariffs, according to a new Intellections episode based on the work of Research Fellow Dan Wang. Rebuilding manufacturing domestically demands a coordinated ecosystem capable of scaling innovation at home. Concentrated industrial hubs, next-generation machinery, and strong alliances with democratic partners can rebuild supply-chain resilience and strengthen national competitiveness. As this short video explains, long-term American leadership rests on the capacity to produce reliably, efficiently, and at scale. Watch here.

Inflation: A View from the FOMC

For the latest episode of Economics, Applied, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) member Jeffrey Schmid speaks with Hoover Senior Fellow and Director of Research Steven J. Davis about inflation, labor market conditions, and US monetary policy. Over the course of the podcast, Davis and Schmid discuss the state of the economy, the thinking behind recent monetary policy decisions, the public’s intense dislike of inflation, central bank credibility, how the recent government shutdown challenged policymakers, and the need to rethink economic statistics. Watch or listen here.

Revitalizing American Institutions

Classical Liberal Education: Scarce, Embattled, Essential

In his weekly column at RealClearPolitics, Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz analyzes several indicators of the dire state of liberal education in the West. “Down through the ages a liberal education, an education to foster flourishing as a free person, was understood as essential to the achievement of civic and human excellence,” writes Berkowitz. Drawing on a recent report published in the UK, he identifies three major challenges facing liberal education: the growing appeal of scientism, ahistorical moral relativism, and expanding educational bureaucracies. Together, the column concludes, “Scientism, scorn for the past, and statism subvert the liberal education that provides the moral compass and intellectual furnishings to grasp the urgency of, and the obstacles to, reclaiming liberal education.” Read more here.