Barry Strauss

About

Barry Strauss is the Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell University, where he taught for over four decades.

Strauss is a military and naval historian with a focus on ancient Greece and Rome and their lessons for today. “No one presents the military history of the ancient world with greater insight and panache than Strauss,” wrote Publishers Weekly. His books have been translated into twenty languages and include several bestsellers. His The Battle of Salamis (2004), Masters of Command (2012), Ten Caesars (2019), and The War that Made the Roman Empire (2022), all appeared on best books of the year lists. His latest book, Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire, will be published by Simon & Schuster in August 2025. He is Series Editor of Princeton’s Turning Points in Ancient History. He also served as Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and a B.A. from Cornell.

Strauss is a a winner of the 2025 Bradley Prize, honoring his lifelong dedication to the study and teaching of Western civilization and classical and military history. In recognition of his scholarship, Strauss was elected to membership of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. He received Italy's Lucio Colletti Journalism Prize for Literature in 2015. He was named an Honorary Citizen of Salamis, Greece in 2012. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Korea Foundation, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the American Academy in Rome. See Strauss's personal website.