The Hoover Centennial

Policy innovation and intellectual discoveries marked the Hoover Institution’s first one hundred years, and an even bigger stage is set for a second century of breakthroughs.

This year, the Hoover Institution celebrates its centennial with events, discussions, and an exhibition commemorating the one-hundred-year-old think tank, which stands today as the world’s preeminent archive and policy research center dedicated to freedom, private enterprise, and effective, limited government.

One of a kind, Hoover’s influence is as far-reaching as it is profound in the circles of US policy-making and scholarship. Launched in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, the institution is unique among American think tanks for its library and archival collections, connection to a university like Stanford, and primary residence on the West Coast—though it also offers the Hoover Institution in Washington.

Hoover’s location offers intellectual as well as geographical benefits, arguably giving scholars a more detached, bird’s-eye perspective on the DC policy landscape and the issues of our tumultuous world. As the late Milton Friedman, economist and senior fellow, once said, “The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus,” and “The problem in this world is to avoid concentration of power—we must have a dispersion of power.”

The Hoover Institution is America’s think tank, mobilizing policy ideas and pioneering the principles of peace and freedom at an urgent time in our nation’s political history. The foundation has been laid for the next one hundred years.