Timeline & History
Explore Hoover’s rich history as it unfolds over nearly 100 years. With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity, while securing and safeguarding peace.
1914-1918
World War I
The Great War
The First World War demonstrated the horrors of humanity and technology on a never before seen scale. In the midst of the atrocities, Herbert Hoover, a Stanford alumnus and successful mining engineer, oversaw food relief efforts in Belgium. It was in this capacity that he was inspired to document the history of war and political change. He later reflected on this inspiration, writing, The position I held [as a relief administrator] required regular visits to several belligerent countries. It seemed to me to offer a unique opportunity to collect and preserve such records. I therefore established centers for such collections in each country and enlisted the aid of others who believed in the importance of the work.
(Sources: Freedom Betrayed introduction, by George Nash)
1919
The Hoover Institution Established
The Hoover War Collection was established as a library and archives, cementing the Institution’s roots in history and scholarship.
Herbert Hoover conceived the idea for gathering materials on World War I while he was organizing humanitarian relief for Belgium. He began the collection in June 1919, when he was at the Paris Peace Conference advising President Wilson. The founding document of the Hoover Institution is a telegram from Herbert Hoover to Stanford president Ray Lyman Wilbur offering $50,000 for the collecting effort and instructing Wilbur to send Professor Ephraim D. Adams to Paris to begin work. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1921
First Shipment of Materials
The first shipment of materials for the Hoover War Collection is received at Stanford.
In addition to Hoover’s collecting documents while in Europe, Stanford professor and war scholar Ephraim Adams, Stanford history graduate Ralph Lutz and historian Frank Golder traveled across Europe to collect pamphlets, newspapers, posters, and government documents for the archives. The founding collections include the extensive files of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the U.S. Food Administration, and the American Relief Administration in Europe and Russia. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1922
The Hoover War Library
The Hoover War Collection is renamed the Hoover War Library.
The Hoover War Library was named on the basis of the collection of primary materials related to World War I. During the course of that year, the library collected forty thousand documents that were housed in the Stanford Library.
1926
Hoover Institution Press Established
The Hoover Institution began publishing its bibliographical series in 1926, beginning with A Catalogue of Paris Peace Conference Delegation Propaganda in the Hoover War Library. This series, which described our library and archival collections, was jointly published with Stanford University Press. The library has since accumulated more than 1.4 million documents. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1928
"A chicken in every pot"
Herbert Hoover named Republican presidential nominee
Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis were nominated as the Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, in June 1928. In this silent clip from the Hoover Archives, Herbert Hoover is shown giving a campaign speech at Stanford Stadium on August 11. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1929 - 1933
Thirty-First President
Herbert Hoover's Presidency
Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States in a landslide. The celebration was brief, however, as the stock market crashed in October of the following year. During his tenure, his popularity sunk to record lows. Over time, history has taken a more objective view, examining his struggles to restore the glory of the 1920s without sacrificing American ideals. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1938
A New Name
The Hoover Library on War, Revolution and Peace
As the Hoover War Library's collections grew and their scope broadened, the name was changed to the Hoover Library on War, Revolution and Peace.
(Source: Peter Duignan's The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace: Seventy-Five Years of its History, 1989 (page 17)
1938
A New Home
The plans for Hoover Tower are announced
Since the mid-1920s, Hoover and Stanford had been planning to move the Library into its own building. The Great Depression, however, made fund-raising nearly impossible; it was not until 1938 that Stanford decided $600,000 was sufficient for the building. The design, as seen here, was contracted to Arthur Brown Jr., who also designed Stanford's University Library, San Francisco City Hall, and San Francisco's Coit Tower. Construction broke ground in 1939.
1939-1945
World War II
The Second Global War
In the spring of 1939, Hoover, anticipating another war, sent then-library director Ralph Lutz (who had collected initial materials for the Library almost two decades earlier) to Europe, with instructions to collect materials from every totalitarian state. Thanks to Hoover's farsightedness and Lutz's dedication, the library was able to accumulate a remarkable collection of materials, documenting the horrors of the Second World War, including the Holocaust, the first use of nuclear weapons, and an estimated fifty to eighty-five million fatalities.
(Source: A Wealth of Ideas, by Bertrand Patenaude) Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1940
Stanford Listening Post
Hoover Institution did its part to win the war
In 1940, the Stanford Listening Post was established in the archives of the Library to record and study radio broadcasts from the Far East. The post recorded foreign broadcasts for the Federal Communications Commission from 1941 to 1943 and transmitted US broadcasts of the US Office of War Information to the Far East from 1942 to 1945.
1941
Dedication
The Hoover Tower dedicated to the sound of ringing bells
The Hoover Tower is completed in time for Stanford University's fiftieth anniversary, and was dedicated as part of the celebration on June 20. Herbert Hoover spoke at the ceremony in front of the tower, and the carillon was played for the first time. Those bells, a gift from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation, came from the 1939 New York World's Fair where they were part of the Belgian exhibit. The bourdon (largest) bell bears the inscription For Peace Alone Do I Ring. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1947
Libraries Are For Research
The Hoover Institution and Library on War, Revolution and Peace
The Hoover Library on War Revolution and Peace was renamed the Hoover Institution and Library on War, Revolution and Peace to reflect the growing importance of research programs.
(Source: Peter Duignan's The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace: Seventy-Five Years of its History, 1989 (page 17)
1959
Mission of the Institution
The Hoover Institution named within Stanford University
Stanford's Board of Trustees officially establishes the Hoover Institution as "an independent institution within the frame of Stanford University."
Herbert Hoover delivers the Institution's mission statement: "This Institution supports the Constitution of the United States, its Bill of Rights and its method of representative government. Both our social and economic systems are based on private enterprise from which springs initiative and ingenuity. . . . Ours is a system where the Federal Government should undertake no governmental, social or economic action, except where local government, or the people, cannot undertake it for themselves. . . . The overall mission of this Institution is, from its records, to recall the voice of experience against the making of war, and by the study of these records and their publication, to recall man's endeavors to make and preserve peace, and to sustain for America the safeguards of the American way of life. This Institution is not, and must not be, a mere library. But with these purposes as its goal, the Institution itself must constantly and dynamically point the road to peace, to personal freedom, and to the safeguards of the American system." Photo Credit: Peninsula-Times Tribune photographs of Stanford University (PC0065). Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
1960
W. Glenn Campbell is appointed as director of the Hoover Institution
The last directorial appointment to be approved by Herbert Hoover, whom Campbell worked directly with until Hoover's death in 1964. Campbell then oversaw the Institution's evolution from being a well-known library and archives to an internationally renowned public policy research center focused on the American principles of individual, economic, and political freedom; private enterprise; and representative government.
1964
Open Space and Peace
Hoover Press released its first independently published book
In 1964 the Hoover Press released its first book, Open Space and Peace: A Symposium of Effects on Observation, edited by Frederick J. Ossenbeck and Patricia C. Kroeck. The Hoover Press is the publishing arm of the Hoover Institution and disseminates the intellectual work of the Hoover fellows.
1964
End Of An Era
Herbert Hoover passed away
Herbert Hoover quietly passed away in his New York home on October 20 at age ninety following prolonged ill health.
1969
Hoover offers research opportunities to members of the military
The Hoover Institution established the National Security Affairs Fellowship (NSAF) in 1969 which offers representatives of the US military and government agencies the opportunity to conduct independent research on topics relevant to their respective branches of government and to the practice of diplomacy. Admission to the program is based on direct nominations from each governmental branch. Learn more about our current NSAFs here. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
1969 - 1974
Nixon Administration
George Shultz and Henry Kissinger served in the Nixon administration
Current Hoover distinguished fellow George P. Shultz served as secretary of labor (1969 1970), director of the Office of Management and Budget (1970 72), and secretary of the Treasury (1972 74). Current Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Henry Kissinger served as secretary of state (1973 77) in both the Nixon and the Ford administrations.
1970
Lightning Never Strikes Twice
Hoover Tower hit by lightning
At 6:30 a.m. on December 2, Hoover Tower was hit by lightning. A three-hundred-pound concrete ball at the top of the tower exploded and landed in the parking lot below; shrapnel flew as far away as fifty feet, and the impact left a six-inch indentation in the pavement. As reported by the New York Times, the event might have been even more exciting had Stanford not just won the Rose Bowl.
(Source: Aftermath from the Stanford Daily, by Bill Cooke, published on December 3, 1970; Douglas E. Kneeland [December 20, 1970],"Campuses Quiet but Not Content," New York Times.)
1975
Alexander Solzhenitsyn visits Hoover
Solzhenitsyn made his first public appearance in the United States
In the late 1970s, Alexander Solzhenitsyn appeared at the Hoover Institution soon after his release from a Soviet prison. He spoke to the press in front of Hoover Tower and was made an honorary fellow. Solzhenitsyn, an eminent Russian novelist, historian, and tireless critic of Soviet totalitarianism, helped raise global awareness of the gulag and the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system. Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974 but returned to Russia in 1994 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Hoover's library and archives have a collection of recordings and transcripts of his speeches, as well as some of his writings.
(Source: Aftermath from the Stanford Daily, by Bill Cooke, published on December 3, 1970; Douglas E. Kneeland [December 20, 1970],"Campuses Quiet but Not Content," New York Times.) Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1976
A Nobel Laureate
Milton Friedman received the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences
On December 10, Milton Friedman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy."
(Source: Milton Friedman's Nobel Prize, on the Hoover website.) Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1977
Friedman Becomes a Fellow
Milton Friedman joined the Hoover Institution as a senior research fellow
Milton Friedman was a US economist, statistician, and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. A recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he is known as a leader of the Chicago school of economics. He profoundly influenced the research agenda of the economics profession. A senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1977 to 2006, Friedman was ranked in a survey of economists as the second most popular economist of the twentieth century after John Maynard Keynes. The Economist described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century . . . possibly of all of it." The Hoover website has several resources on Milton Friedman, including Milton and Rose Friedman: An Uncommon Couple website; his bio page, which lists his numerous publications; and several Uncommon Knowledge episodes including “Take It to the Limits: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism,” “Presidential Report Card: Milton Friedman on the State of the Union,” “Milton’s Paradise Gained: Milton Friedman’s Advice for the Next President,” “The Economy’s New Clothes: Milton Friedman on the New Economy,” “Pay It Backwards: The Federal Budget Surplus,” “The High and the Mighty: The War on Drugs,” and “Economics and War: The Economic Impact of the War on Terrorism.” Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1980 - 1981
William Perry received the US Department of Defense's Distinguished Service Medal in consecutive years.
1981
President Reagan appoints Hoover Institution director W. Glenn Campbell as chairman of the President's Intelligence Oversight Board and as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
1981
Flat Tax
Rabushka and Hall introduced the flat tax
Alvin Rabushka and Robert Hall introduce their flat-tax plan as a proposed tax reform in the Wall Street Journal. The Hall-Rabushka reform would tax income at a constant marginal rate, would be fairer than our current system, and is simple enough to fit on a postcard. It was adopted by many Eastern European countries after the fall of the Soviet Union. The second edition of The Flat Tax is available from the Hoover Press. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1981 - 1989
Reagan Administration
George Shultz and Edwin Meese III served in the Reagan administration
Current Hoover distinguished fellow George P. Shultz served as secretary of state (1982 89). Current Hoover distinguished visiting fellow Edwin Meese III served as counselor to the president (1981-1985) and attorney general (1985 88).
1985
Charles McLure Jr. received US Treasury Department's Exceptional Service Medal.
1988
Milton Friedman received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1989
George P. Shultz received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1989 - 1993
Bush Administration
Michael Boskin served in H. W. Bush's administration
Current senior fellow Michael J. Boskin served as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1989 93).
1990
A New Director
John Raisian named director of the Hoover Institution
John Raisian was named the successor to W. Glenn Campbell. According to the LA Times, Raisian, 40, has a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA and taught at the University of Washington and the University of Houston. He held several posts in the Ronald Reagan Administration, including director of research and technical support in the U.S. Department of Labor. He later headed a consulting firm in Los Angeles and went to Hoover in 1986 as a senior research fellow, eventually rising to second in command under Campbell.
(Source: Larry Gordon, New Director Is Named for Hoover Institution, LA Times, May 15, 1990.) Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
1991
Hoover in The Economist
Hoover Institution included as top global think tank
In the December issue, The Economist magazine mentioned the Hoover Institution in a feature piece entitled The good think-tank guide, outlining the most prestigious think tanks around the world. The article declared that the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace is hard to match for sheer intellectual firepower.
(Source: The good think-tank guide: the joys of detached involvement, The Economist 21 December 1991: 49+. Biography in Context, Web, 7 February 2014.)
1992
After the Cold War
Mikhail Gorbachev visited the Hoover Institution
Following Mikhail Gorbachev's economic and political reforms (referred to as perestroika and glasnost, respectively) in the mid-1980s, a series of internal revolutions broke the Soviet Union apart. The USSR was officially dissolved on December 25, 1991. In May 1992, Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, visited the Hoover Archives and Stanford University as part of a two-week tour of the United States.
(Source: The good think-tank guide: the joys of detached involvement, The Economist 21 December 1991: 49+. Biography in Context, Web, 7 February 2014.) Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
1992
A Nobel Laureate
Gary Becker
On December 10, 1992, Gary Becker was awarded the Nobel Laureate Prize in Economic Sciences "for having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behavior and interaction, including nonmarket behavior."
(Source: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1992/becker-facts.html)
1992
Expanding the Russia Collection
End of Cold War opened opportunity to study Soviet Communist Party
The Hoover Institution signed an agreement with the Russian State Archives to microfilm twelve million pages of the Soviet Communist Party documents, with dates ranging from 1898 to 1991. More information about the available materials can be found on the Hoover website.
1993 - 2001
Clinton Administration
William Perry served in the Clinton administration
Current senior fellow William Perry served as secretary of defense (1994 97).
1993
Rice Becomes a Fellow
Condoleezza Rice joined the Hoover Institution as a senior fellow
Condoleezza Rice is perhaps best known for her service to President George W. Bush's administration. From 2001 to 2005, she served as President George W. Bush's assistant for national security affairs, the first woman to hold the position. She went on to serve as the sixty-sixth secretary of state from 2005 to 2009, the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post. At the time of her appointment to the Hoover Institution, Rice was an award-winning Stanford political science professor in the process of moving to her position as Stanford University's provost, a post she held until 1999. She returned to the Institution in 2009. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
1993
A Nobel Laureate
Douglass North
On December 10, Douglass C. North, jointly with Robert W. Fogel was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize "for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change."
(Source: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1993/)
1993
The Taylor Rule
John Taylor published first paper on the Taylor Rule
Economist John Taylor published a paper explaining his eponymous rule regarding the relationship between inflation and how much the central bank changes the nominal interest rate. In 2012 his rule became a Hoover Press book entitled The Taylor Rule and the Transformation of Monetary Policy.
1996
Hoover Digest
The first Hoover Digest is published
The inaugural issue of the Hoover Digest was published in January 1996. Hoover director John Raisian conceived the Digest as a new and important vehicle to reach out to an informed public interested in knowledge and ideas about public policy. Today you can read the Hoover Digest on the Hoover website or subscribe.
1997
The First Uncommon Knowledge
Martin Anderson and John Ellwood were guests
Uncommon Knowledge first aired in February 1997 on PBS member station KTEH with guests Martin Anderson and John Ellwood discussing the budget deficit. Today, the show is produced by the Hoover Institution and airs on Hoover’s website and on the online Wall Street Journal opinion page. Videos and transcripts of previous episodes are available on the Uncommon Knowledge home page. Photo Credit: Uncommon Knowledge
1997
The Hoover Institution's National, Public Affairs, and Peace Fellows Programs are renamed in honor of former Hoover director W. Glenn Campbell and his wife, Rita Ricardo Campbell. The W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo Campbell National Fellows Program provides outstanding scholars in a range of disciplines with the opportunity to spend a year in residence at the Hoover Institution devoted to original research about questions of domestic and international policy
1997
William Perry received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
2000
Richard Scaife
Richard Scaife awarded inaugural Uncommon Commitment Award
During the Hoover board meeting in Washington, DC, Richard M. Scaife was awarded the inaugural Uncommon Commitment Award, the first honorary award established by the Hoover Institution, in recognition of his contributions to Hoover and its guiding principles. The award is named after an Armistice Day speech by Herbert Hoover in 1948.
2000
A Distinguished Guest
Margaret Thatcher visited the Hoover Institution
When Honorary Fellow Margaret Thatcher visited the Hoover Institution, she gave a speech reflecting on her time in government and the need for leadership:
During my time as leader of the opposition and then as prime minister, the Hoover Institution was quite simply the world's most important institute of research into political, economic, and international affairs. Its full titlethe Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peaceand the date of its foundation, 1919, themselves remind us how much Hoover's scholars have been involved with illuminating the struggle between freedom and communism and their first cousins, capitalism and socialism. . . . Hoover's scholarship is by no means concentrated solely upon international security issues, and that is as it should be. But let us be in no doubt: the world is still a dangerous place, and it is even more dangerous when domestic concernssuch as the economy stupid'are all that encompass political discourse.
The complete speech was reprinted in the Hoover Digest. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
2000
Gary Becker received the National Medal of Science.
2001 - 2009
Bush Administration
Edward P. Lazear, Condoleezza Rice and John Taylor served in the Bush administration
Current Hoover senior fellow Edward Paul Lazear served as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (2006 09); current Hoover senior fellow Condoleezza Rice served as assistant to National Security Affairs (2001-2005) and as secretary of state (2005 09). Current senior fellow John Taylor served as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs (2001-2005).
2001
Expanding Back East
Hoover Institution established a presence in DC
To better inform policy and interact more readily with policy makers, the Hoover Institution created a branch in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: KP Tripathi
2001
A Nobel Laureate
Michael Spence
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic 2001 was awarded jointly to George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence, and Joseph E. Stiglitz "for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information. Michael Spence would become a Hoover fellow in 2010.
(Source: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2001/)
2001
Sidney Drell received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the US Department of Defense's Distinguished Service Medal.
2002
Bush Administration
Thomas Sowell received the National Humanities Medal.
2004
Shelby Steele and Harvey Mansfield received the National Humanities Medal.
Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
2005
Robert Conquest received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2006
The National Humanities Medal
Hoover Institution received the National Humanities Medal
The Hoover Institution is awarded the National Humanities Medal. Inaugurated in 1997, the medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities. It is the nation's highest official award in the humanities. Hoover senior fellow Fouad Ajami was also awarded the medal this year. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
2007
Gary Becker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
2007
Victor Davis Hanson received the National Humanities Medal.
2009 - 2014
Obama Administration
Michael McFaul serves in the Obama administration
Current Hoover senior fellow Michael McFaul is served as the ambassador to the Russian Federation from 2012 to 2014 for the President Obama Administration. Before becoming ambassador, he served for three years as the special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council. Before serving in the government, McFaul served as deputy director at the Freeman Spogli Institute and director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law. He was also a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is now a professor of political science at Stanford University
2011
Davies, Edwards, and Taube
Uncommon Commitment Award
Distinguished board members Paul L. Davies Jr., William C. Edwards, and Tad Taube receive the first Uncommon Commitment Awards in more than a decade, acknowledging their work in promoting the Hoover Institution's guiding principles.
2011
A Nobel Laureate
Thomas Sargent
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic 2011 was awarded jointly to Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims "for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy."
(Source: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2011/)
2013
The Hoover Institution's Johnson Center
Hoover expanded its DC presence to New York Avenue
To solidify and grow the Hoover Institution's voice on the East Coast, Hoover built a new center on New York Avenue. The new center will create an outpost for Hoover fellows in DC, promote policy research to key national audiences, and facilitate premium policy events. The Johnson Center officially opened its doors on November 4, 2013. Photo Credit: John Cole
2013
Peter Bedford
Uncommon Commitment Award
Peter Bedford was awarded the Hoover Institution's Uncommon Commitment Award. Only the fifth person to receive this award, Bedford was recognized as an exemplar of the power one individual can exert for a positive impact on society; for embodying the values of education, public service, leadership, and a generous spirit as effective forces for advancing the good; and for epitomizing the principles of individual, economic, and political freedom in the generation of ideas defining a free society.
2014
Four Fed presidents and many distinguished economists participated in two panel discussions and seven paper discussions over the course of two days, with a large media presence on hand. Hoover senior fellow John B. Taylor who organized the conference stated in his opening remarks that the purpose of the conference was to put forth and discuss a set of policy recommendations that are consistent with and encourage a more rules-based policy for the Federal Reserve and would thus improve economic performance, especially in comparison with the past decade. Photo Credit: Steve Gladfelter
2014
Inaugural Congressional Cyber Boot Camp
Two-dozen senior congressional staffers attended the inaugural cybersecurity boot camp to engage with government, academia and Silicon Valley experts who are trying to ward off cyber attacks and network crimes. The three-day boot camp integrated multiple perspectives and disciplines and provide an understanding of the underpinnings of cybersecurity and how they fit together. Photo Credit: Rod Searcey
2015
A New Director
Groundbreaking For New Hoover Building
On July 7, 2015, the Hoover Institution conducted a ceremonial groundbreaking on a new 50,000-square-foot building adjacent to Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus. Named for its primary and generous benefactors, David and Joan Traitel, the Hoover Institution's new two-story building will house on its ground floor a 400-seat auditorium named in honor of Everett Sparky Hauck and his wife, Jane, and a 440-seat dining and multipurpose room, Blount Hall, in honor of Bill Blount. Traitel, Hauck, and Blount are longtime members of the Hoover Board of Overseers, with Traitel chairing the board from 2008 to 2010. The new site will also feature a welcoming pavilion. A beautiful courtyard and open space will be named in honor of Hoover overseer Art Hall and his wife, Joanne. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2015
Tom Gilligan Becomes Director
Thomas W. Gilligan assumed the role of the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution in September of 2015. A scholar in economics and political science, Gilligan also serves as a senior fellow at Hoover. Gilligan has had a long-standing relationship with the Hoover Institution and Stanford University serving as a Hoover national fellow in 1989-90 and a visiting faculty member at Stanford's Graduate School of Business in 1989-90 and again in 1994. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2016
Blueprint For America Outlines Policy Road Map For 2017
The Hoover Institution Press released Blueprint for America, a road map outlining basic policies that should be priorities for the next president and Congress. Under the directive of Distinguished fellow, George P. Shultz, scholars at the Hoover Institution professors, thinkers, and practitioners of global renown in their respective fields offer a series of accessible policy ideas for a civic, economic, and security architecture to shore up the long-term foundations of American strengths.
2016
PolicyEd Launched Inaugural Congressional Fellowship Program
Hoover's Washington office launched a new initiative, the Congressional Fellowship Program, which brings the Hill to Hoover. Like other programs for media and policy professionals, including media roundtables and policy boot camps, congressional fellows visit Hoover's Stanford University campus for a comprehensive, multiday introduction to the institution. Congressional fellows tour Hoover's campus and meet with Hoover fellows and leadership. They also participate in educational briefings from Hoover scholars about issues driving policy initiatives on Capitol Hill. Photo Credit: Rod Searcey
2016
Online Collected Works Of Milton Friedman Launched
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but thanks to the Hoover Institution's new website Collected Works of Milton Friedman, the public will be able to freely access hundreds of Milton Friedman's articles, lectures, and other works from anywhere in the world.
This new online resource features over 1,400 digital items by and about the Nobel Laureate and Hoover fellow, including every episode of the PBS seriesFree to Choose, 206 episodes of Friedman's weekly Economics Cassette Series, sound and video recordings of the lecture seriesMilton Friedman Speaks, and hundreds of Friedman's op-eds published in Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal.
2016
A New Educational Platform PolicyEd.org Launched
The Hoover Institution launched PolicyEd.org, an online platform that hosts videos and other educational content to equip Americans with an analytical perspective about public policy issues. Based on the research of Hoover Institution scholars, the site offers solutions to today's challenges in economics, health care, national security, civics, and the environment. By translating academic material into easily understood educational programming, PolicyEd.org aims to attract a broad audience interested in learning more about policy solutions to entitlement spending, slow economic growth, the Affordable Care Act, public pensions, foreign policy, and more.
2017
Traitel Building Opens
Jim Mattis Becomes Twenty-Sixth Secretary Of Defense
General Jim Mattis, the Davies Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Hoover and former commander of US Central Command, is appointed the twenty-sixth secretary of defense in the administration of President-Elect Donald Trump. The Hoover Institution applauds Mattis as he takes this opportunity to apply his extraordinary knowledge and experience in shaping national defense policy. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution
2017
Inaugural Summer Policy Boot Camp
The Hoover Institution's Summer Policy Boot Camp (HISPBC) is an intensive, one week residential immersion program in the essentials of today's national and international United States policy. The program is intended to instruct college students and recent graduates on the economic, political, and social aspects of United States public policy. The goal is to teach students how to think critically about public policy formulation and its results. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
2017
Former President George W. Bush Helps Open New David And Joan Traitel Building
The opening day of Hoover's 2017 Fall Retreat featured a milestone event in Hoover's nearly hundred-year history: the dedication of the David and Joan Traitel Building. The ceremony honored the generous contributors who made possible the construction of the new facility, which transforms Hoover's capabilities for hosting policy leaders, convening scholars, and engaging with supporters. Former president George W. Bush kicked off the program in a special conversation with Hoover Institution senior fellow Condoleezza Rice. Photo Credit: Tim Griffith and Eric Draper
2018
Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson Describes The Way Forward For The United States Regarding Syria
On January 17, 2018, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited the Hoover Institution to outline the future of US policy in Syria and the Trump Administration's vision for stability, the return of refugees, an end to the Assad regime, and the defeat of ISIS in the country. Photo Credit: Rod Searcey
2018
H.R. McMaster Named The Fouad And Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, US Army (Ret.) is appointed the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow on September 1, 2018. McMaster returns to Hoover where he was a National Security Affairs Fellow from 2002 to 2003 and a Visiting Fellow from 2003 to 2017. Prior to rejoining Hoover, McMaster was the 26th Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. He served with distinction in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring in June 2018. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2018
Revisiting the 2008 Financial Crisis
Market and policy antecedents and repercussions of the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Great Recession began long before and lasted long after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008. A series of presentations and discussions held during the fall of 2018 delved into the causes, but also examined the actions and interventions taken during the crisis and the recession, and to draw policy lessons for the future. The Hoover Institution provided an overview of the findings at these sessions and hosted a public panel discussion "Revisiting the 2008 Financial Crisis: the Causes, the Panic, the Recession and the Lessons."
2019
Hoover Centennial
Hoover Institution Centennial
On April 22, 2019 the Hoover Institution celebrates 100 years.
2019
Hoover Institution Marks Its Centennial
The Hoover Institution celebrated 100 years with a lecture series examining policy issues that defined America over the past century. The Institution also opened an exhibition in the Hoover Tower, Hoover@100, a showcase of documents and artifacts centered around the ideas of peace, freedom, and education—ideas that are embodied in the lives of Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover and that have driven the Institution’s collecting and the work of its eminent fellows over its century. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Defends Strike against Qassim Soleimani
On January 13, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a public address in Blount Hall a little more than a week following the US drone strike that killed Qassim Soleimani, former chief of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, at the Baghdad International Airport. Pompeo defended the strike, arguing that Soleimani was the world’s deadliest terrorist since Osama bin laden. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
2020
Socialism and Free-Market Capitalism: The Human Prosperity Project Is Launched
In February, the Hoover Institution launched the Human Prosperity Project, chaired by senior fellows Scott W. Atlas and Edward Paul Lazear, aimed at providing scholarly analysis on the arguments and outcomes produced by the world’s dominant, conflicting, and most fiercely debated economic systems: Socialism and Free-Market Capitalism. The project covers a broad range of issues, from historical perspectives and examination of current policies, such as each system’s influence on national economic growth, as well as important social imperatives including broad access to ensuring quality medical care, enacting sensible immigration policies, protecting the environment, and forging strategic international relationships. Since its creation, fellows participating in the Human Prosperity Project produced essays, participated in panel discussions, and were featured on Hoover’s educational video platform PolicyEd. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2020
Hoover Goes Virtual during COVID-19 Pandemic
In March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the offices of the Hoover Institution to close for eighteen months. During that period, Hoover fellows continued to produce research of the highest quality despite being physically distanced and working from home. The Hoover Institution produced all of its programs on virtual communications applications such as Zoom. It also launched online series that garnered worldwide audiences including Virtual Policy Briefings featuring fellows’ analysis on the impact of the pandemic from several different policy perspectives and GoodFellows, in which senior fellows John Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, and H.R. McMaster discuss the policy implications of current events.
2020
Condoleezza Rice Is Named Director of the Hoover Institution
On September 1, Condoleezza Rice becomes the Tad and Dianne Taube director of the Hoover Institution. In addition to her roles as White House national security advisor and America’s 66th secretary of state, Rice has spent a great portion of her distinguished academic career at Stanford, as Hoover senior fellow, as an award winning educator, and as the university’s provost. As director of Hoover, she aligned the institution’s research priorities around issues of the highest importance, including challenges facing advanced capitalist societies; reinvigorating America’s role in the world to standup for democracy against threats posed by authoritarian regimes; revitalizing history so that citizens and leaders can think about its lessons to obstacles the nation faces in the present; recognizing that meaningful policy change can take place at the state and local level; analyzing the impacts of technology and innovation on America's economy, society, and democratic government; and understanding China’s worldview and how to confront the challenges it poses to America and global freedom. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
2020
Edward Paul Lazear Passes Away
On November 23, Edward Paul Lazear, award-winning-economist, public servant, and the Hoover Institution’s Morris Arnold and Nona Jean Cox Senior Fellow, dies at 72. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2021
George P. Shultz Dies at 100
On February 6, Distinguished Fellow George P. Shultz dies two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. When Stanford University reopened for visitors that fall, his memorial services were held at the historic Memorial Church on-campus. In eulogies, his friends and colleagues remembered the eminent statesman’s inspirational leadership and his monumental legacy in advancing peace and freedom. Photo Credit: Hoover Institution Archives
2021
Hoover Institution Welcomes First Class of Veteran Fellows
In October, the Hoover Institution welcomed its inaugural class of veteran fellows. Each year, the program selects armed services veterans based on their demonstrated leadership and success as mid-career professionals in the private sector, as well as their commitment to the Hoover Institution’s overall mission of advancing ideas for free societies. At the conclusion of their one-year fellowship, veteran fellows submit a capstone project, in which they develop actionable solutions to policy challenges in their respective communities, including those impacting governments, businesses, workforces, schools, public health systems, and the security and safety of their fellow citizens.
2021
Eric Hanushek Is Awarded Prestigious Yidan Prize
On September 28, Eric Hanushek, the Hoover Institution’s Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, was awarded the Yidan Prize, the world’s most prestigious education accolade, for his pioneering research on improving the educational outcomes of students. Throughout his five-decade-long career, Hanushek's research has largely focused on the premise that K–12 education will not progress unless policy decisions are based on rigorous evaluations of student performance. Notably, he has concluded that solely increasing government expenditures to education does not directly correlate with greater student achievement. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
2021
Hoover Institution Launches the Tennenbaum Program for Fact-Based Policy
On October 27, the Hoover Institution launched the Tennenbaum Program for Fact-Based Policy. Made possible by the generosity of Suzanne (Stanford ’75) and Michael E. Tennenbaum, the program, drawing on the research of Hoover scholars who are leaders in their respective fields, assembles data on a wide range of issues, and produces analyses on how such data are being applied in policy debates and decision making.
March 2022
Hoover Institution Publishes Report on China’s Launch of Digital Currency
The Hoover Institution published Digital Currencies: The US, China, and the World at a Crossroads, a new report about how the United States can respond to the growing use of the digital yuan, or e-CNY, China’s version of central bank digital currency (CBDC). The report is coedited by nationally leading economist Darrell Duffie and acclaimed China scholar Elizabeth Economy, both Hoover senior fellows. The report features several participating scholars within the Hoover community as well as other distinguished experts from various disciplines, including national security, finance, central banking, technology policy, and computer science.
2022
Hoover Tower Illuminated in Colors of the Ukraine Flag
The Hoover Tower was illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag as a show of support for the people of Ukraine. Together, Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice decided that it would be appropriate to have the Hoover Tower, given its historic relation to Ukraine, as a location to show solidarity with the brave men and women fighting for their country. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
2022
Hoover Hosts Inaugural Education Summit
The Hoover Institution hosted its first Education Summit featuring discussions with scholars, educators, activists, and other experts about the formulation and advancement of policies aimed at improving outcomes for American K–12 students. The idea for an education summit was conceptualized by Condoleezza Rice, who, since taking leadership of the Hoover Institution in 2020, has stressed the importance of quality education opportunities, especially in helping disadvantaged and minority youth overcome discrimination and achieve true social, political, and economic equality. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
August 2022
Hoover Institution Delegation Visits Taiwan Amid Security Challenges Posed by China
A delegation of thirteen Hoover Institution fellows and cooperating scholars visited the Republic of China (Taiwan) for five days of high-level meetings, which included President Tsai Ing-wen and top government officials, defense strategists, party leaders, business professionals, and public intellectuals from across the political spectrum. Delegation members reported their insights during an October webinar. Photo Credit: Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
October 2022
Hoover Institution Awards Winners of First Annual Distinguished Undergraduate Essay Competition
The Hoover Institution honored the winners of its first annual Distinguished Undergraduate Essay Competition during a ceremony in the Traitel Building’s welcoming pavilion. Those recognized were among high-achieving Stanford undergraduate students of various disciplines who were encouraged to submit papers written within the past year that addressed topics related to the integrity of democratic values and institutions and the impact of specific policies on the ideal of individual freedom. Photo Credit: Daniel Beck
October 2022
Secretary of State Antony Blinken Visits the Hoover Institution
Before a full crowd of mostly students in the Hoover Institution’s Hauck Auditorium, Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in a conversation with his predecessor Condoleezza Rice on a broad spectrum of issues impacting the security and prosperity of the United States and likeminded partners. Issues included aggression by Russia and China against the post–Cold War security architecture and how the free world can best grapple with challenges resulting from the rapid pace of technological innovation. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
January 2023
Markets vs. Mandates: Promoting Environmental Quality and Economic Prosperity
Terry Anderson, John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow.
The Hoover Institution hosted Markets vs. Mandates on January 30, a first-of-its-kind, daylong event where scholars led by Hoover’s Terry Anderson and Dominic Parker explored differences between market-led and state regulation efforts to manage the natural realm. Speakers compared the two approaches against the need for emissions reduction, land conservation, climate change adaptation, habitat preservation, and more. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
February 2023
Hoover Delegation Visits India
Delegations of the Hoover Institution and Tata Sons met in New Delhi.
Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice led a delegation to New Delhi in February to meet with India’s political, business, and academic leaders. Intended to chart next steps in US-India relations as the world’s largest democracy continues its rise, Hoover fellows copresented a summit with Indian conglomerate Tata Sons and held a briefing at the US embassy. The trip built upon Hoover’s Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations, which aims to generate, identify, and advance policy-relevant scholarship and connections between the world’s oldest democracy (the United States) and its largest democracy (India).
April 2023
Hoover Hosts House Select Committee on China
General Jim Mattis, Davies Family Distinguished Fellow, has an exchange with US Rep. Ro Khanna from California.
With the United States facing a raft of security, trade, and diplomatic challenges with China, the Hoover Institution hosted the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party on April 6‒7. A bipartisan group of ten members exchanged ideas with numerous Hoover fellows on issues concerning the conduct of the Chinese Communist Party in areas including critical mineral supply, digital currencies, the “no limits” relationship between Russia and China, and strategic competition with China and its implications for emerging technologies. They also discussed reorganizing the Department of Defense to effectively compete with China. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
April 2023
Hoover Hosts House Select Committee on China
Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, chair of the United States House Select Committee on China, participates in a roundtable discussion during the committee’s visit to the Hoover Institution.
April 2023
Hoover History Lab Hosts Inaugural Conference
Kleinheinz Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin (center) leads a session during the Hoover History Lab conference.
The Hoover Institution hosted its inaugural History Lab conference, featuring scholars and national security professionals who exchanged ideas and provided analyses of possible trajectories of today’s world. The lab’s principal investigators are Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow and the lab’s director; Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow; and Victor Davis Hanson, Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow – and is organized as a hub for teaching, convening scholars, and advancing high-powered research projects. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
April 2023
Former Hoover Director John Raisian dies at 73
John Raisian.
John Raisian, director of the Hoover Institution for a quarter century, died in April at the age of 73 after battling a long illness. An economist who served in the Reagan administration, Raisian joined the Hoover Institution in 1986 and became its permanent director in May 1990, serving until his retirement in 2015. Hoover’s size, scope, and status grew immensely during his tenure. His memorial service saw family, friends, and former colleagues celebrate his life and speak of his warmth and empathy. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
May 2023
Launch of Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative
Hoover Fellow Jacquelyn Schneider describes the goals of the Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative at Hoover’s Washington, DC, center.
May marked the launch of the Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative founded and spearheaded by Hoover Fellow Jacquelyn Schneider. The vision for the initiative is to advance wargames, simulations, and their data as analytic tools and learning resources for academia, policy, and industry. A centerpiece is the Wargaming Archive, a publicly accessible digital repository of wargaming data housed at the Hoover Library & Archives. Photo Credit: Jay Mallin
June 2023
CREDO Charter School Study
Students in charter schools perform better than their peers in traditional public schools, according to a sweeping review of school data released by Stanford researchers in June. The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), directed by distinguished research fellow Margaret (Macke) Raymond, sourced data from twenty-nine states in the nation and found that, between 2014 and 2019, the average charter school student had the equivalent of sixteen more days of learning in reading and six more days in math each school year than a comparable public school pupil.
October 2023
Release of Silicon Triangle
The Hoover Institution, in partnership with the Asia Society’s Center on US‒China Relations, released Silicon Triangle: The United States, Taiwan, China, and Global Semiconductor Security. In this groundbreaking new report, a multidisciplinary group of economists, technologists, military strategists, industry players, and regional policy experts examines how the rapidly evolving and increasingly strategic trade in semiconductors links the security, economic prosperity, and technological competitiveness of the United States, China, and Taiwan.
October 2023
Hoover hosts first public meeting of ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence leaders
FBI director Christopher Wray and the heads of intelligence services from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand publicly sounded the alarm about industrial espionage by China and other rogue actors during a public discussion with Hoover Institution director Condoleezza Rice in October. The “Five Eyes” intelligence chiefs warned of intellectual property theft by China at an unprecedented scale and urged technology firms, especially start-ups, to become more vigilant. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
October 2023
Hoover remembers those killed on 10/7 by Hamas in Israel
Fellows and supporters of the Hoover Institution held a solemn candlelit vigil for the more than 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas militants on October 7. More than 200 Israelis were taken by Hamas as hostages during the attack. Photo Credit: Eric Draper
November 2023
Stanford launches Emerging Technology Review
Together with Stanford’s School of Engineering, fellows at the Hoover Institution launched the Stanford Emerging Technology Review, a new initiative aimed at guiding policymakers through the challenges posed by ten frontier technologies. The initiative explores significant technologies shaping the world in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, cryptography, semiconductor production, space, nuclear energy, and more.
November 30-December 1, 2023
Hoover launches The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions
A panel discussion during the inaugural conference of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI), “The State of American Institutions.”
The Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) marked its launch with a conference on November 30‒December 1, where scholars and policy leaders addressed various challenges threatening the efficacy and stability of America’s democratic institutions. Directed by Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow Brandice Canes-Wrone, RAI was developed at Hoover with a mission to achieve an understanding behind the astonishingly low trust and confidence in American institutions. The goal of RAI and its affiliated scholars is to document these institutions’ successes and failures and provide recommendations for fortifying them and increasing their effectiveness. Photo Credit: Patrick Beaudouin
