Peter M. Robinson

Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow
Biography: 

Peter M. Robinson is the Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's video series program, Uncommon Knowledge™.

Robinson is also the author of three books: How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan Books, 2003); It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP, (Warner Books, 2000); and the best-selling business book Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA (Warner Books, 1994; still available in paperback).

In 1979, he graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he majored in English. He went on to study politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University, from which he graduated in 1982.

Robinson spent six years in the White House, serving from 1982 to 1983 as chief speechwriter to Vice President George Bush and from 1983 to 1988 as special assistant and speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan. He wrote the historic Berlin Wall address in which President Reagan called on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"

After the White House, Robinson attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. (The journal he kept formed the basis for Snapshots from Hell.) He graduated with an MBA in 1990.

Robinson then spent a year in New York City with Fox Television, reporting to the owner of the company, Rupert Murdoch. He spent a second year in Washington, D.C., with the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served as the director of the Office of Public Affairs, Policy Evaluation, and Research. Robinson joined the Hoover Institution in 1993.

The author of numerous essays and interviews, Robinson has published in the New York Times, Red Herring, and Forbes ASAP, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review Online. He is the editor of Can Congress Be Fixed?: Five Essays on Congressional Reform (Hoover Institution Press, 1995).

In 2005, Robinson was elected to serve as a Trustee of Dartmouth College.

Robinson lives in northern California with his wife, their children and their dog, Crusoe.

His research papers are available at the Hoover Institution Archives.

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Recent Commentary

Interviews

American Politics with Michael Barone: Chapter 3 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Michael Baronevia Uncommon Knowledge
Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Michael Barone discusses some cultural shifts that have occurred in the U.S. since the 1960s...

Interviews

American Politics with Michael Barone: Chapter 2 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Michael Baronevia Uncommon Knowledge
Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Michael Barone explains why economic conservatism has triumphed in the U.S. since the 1970s...

Interviews

American Politics with Michael Barone: Chapter 1 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Michael Baronevia Uncommon Knowledge
Monday, August 2, 2010

Michael Barone, the principal author and editor of The Almanac of American Politics (est. 1971), discusses the genesis and evolution of that indispensible volume...

Interviews

Grand Strategy with Charles Hill : Chapter 5 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Charles Hillvia Uncommon Knowledge
Friday, July 23, 2010

Charles Hill outlines the deterioration of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War...

Interviews

Grand Strategy with Charles Hill: Chapter 4 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Charles Hillvia Uncommon Knowledge
Thursday, July 22, 2010

According to Charles Hill, Obama does not understand America since he cannot grasp the idea of American exceptionalism...

Interviews

Grand Strategy with Charles Hill : Chapter 3 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Charles Hillvia Uncommon Knowledge
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Charles Hill looks to the example of Thucydides to explain why the grand strategist must always match substance with style...

Interviews

Grand Strategy with Charles Hill: Chapter 2 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Charles Hillvia Uncommon Knowledge
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Charles Hill explains why statecraft cannot be practiced in the absence of literary insight...

Interviews

Statecraft with Charles Hill : Chapter 1 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Charles Hillvia Uncommon Knowledge
Monday, July 19, 2010

Charles Hill, author of Grand Strategies, describes the idea of “grand strategy...”

Interviews

Economic Headwinds with Lazear & Boskin : Chapter 5 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Michael J. Boskin, Edward Paul Lazearvia Uncommon Knowledge
Friday, July 9, 2010

Michael Boskin and Edward Lazear agree that we are in grave danger as a nation if we continue on the current path of fiscal policy...

Interviews

Economic Headwinds with Lazear & Boskin : Chapter 4 of 5

by Peter M. Robinson with Michael J. Boskin, Edward Paul Lazearvia Uncommon Knowledge
Thursday, July 8, 2010

How fares the economics profession? And how does one explain the resurgence of the Keynesian model? Michael Boskin and Edward Lazear weigh in...

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