David Davenport, a counselor to the director and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, discusses the genesis of modern conservatism.  Modern American conservatism, Davenport avers, was born in the 1930s, when Herbert Hoover took on the excesses of the New Deal. The New Deal overturned the way in which the United States worked and was governed. Eighty years later the New Deal is still the paradigm for US domestic policy. Obama is adding to the New Deal ideology with many of his policies, which are undermining US liberty and its rugged individualism. In his recent book, The New Deal and Modern American Conservatism: A Defining Rivalry, Davenport goes back to the 1930s to illustrate how the twenty-first-century discourse between progressives and conservatives grew out of the Roosevelt-Hoover debate of the 1930s.

Davenport: The New Deal and Modern American Conservatism: Then and Now

Richard Epstein examines the arguments over reparations and considers whether there are better methods for fostering African American mobility.

The Libertarian: “The Reparations Debate”

Radio Free Europe Czechoslovak Service, Tape N22589

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.


French Press Comment on Czechoslovakia - 24 August 1968

Victor Davis Hanson looks at the motivations behind Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, chronicles the shortcomings of the US response, and considers whether NATO is up to the challenge of an expansionist Moscow.

Strategika: “Understanding Putin” with Victor Davis Hanson

Citation information:

Polish service sound recordings Box 1, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast records, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University

Admiral Harold B. Miller (Ret.) announces the launch of Radio Free Europe's broadcasts to Poland

Richard Epstein looks at the recent nuclear agreement with Iran, the upending of the traditional process for treaty ratification in the Senate, and the consequences for America’s national security.

“The Nuclear Deal with Iran”

Richard Epstein explains the development of his political and legal philosophy, focusing on the individuals and books that exerted the greatest influence on him.

The Education of a Libertarian

Mark Moyar looks at how ISIS fits into the broader history of terrorism, and examines what it’s ambitions for a caliphate mean for American national security.

Understanding ISIS with Mark Moyar

Cyber threats from rogue actors, and the need to secure critical digital infrastructure against attack, have earned a prominent role in the US national security strategy dialogue. Most often, the focus of the conversation is defensive. Herbert Lin, however, adds an interesting dimension to the discussion: the potential use of cyber attacks by US agencies to disrupt the operations of our adversaries. Lin explains a menu of options for offensive deployment of cyber tactics but also points out complex political, legal, and ethical implications surrounding their use. 

Herbert Lin: Punching Back in Cyberspace

Victor Davis Hanson analyzes what Britain’s exit from the EU means for the future of European culture and international security.

Brexit and the Future of Europe

Victor Davis Hanson looks at how the year 1941 transformed World War II from a regional conflict into a global conflagration -- and explains how lessons from that era apply to modern foreign policy challenges.

Lessons from World War II

Victor Davis Hanson explains why many Americans are increasingly removed from the nation's core political, economic, and cultural institutions.

America the Alienated

Victor Davis Hanson looks at the controversies around Donald Trump's relationship with the Russian government and analyzes the trajectory of Washington's relationship with Moscow.

What Kind of Threat is Russia?

Victor Davis Hanson examines the constituent parts of Donald Trump's political beliefs and attempts to deduce the animating principles of Trumpism.

What is Trumpism?

On the 100th anniversary of America's entry into World War I, Victor Davis Hanson looks at the Great War's legacy in terms of politics, foreign policy, and military history.


World War I, A Century Later

Victor Davis Hanson examines how permissive attitudes towards illegal immigration undermine respect for the rule of law and traditional notions of citizenship.

The Civic Cost of Illegal Immigration

Recorded on February 27, 2017
In the latest episode from Uncommon Knowledge, Sir Roger Scruton, a formally trained political philosopher, talks about his life and the events he’s witnessed that led him to conservatism. He first embraced conservatism after witnessing the leftist student protests in France in May 1968. During the ensuing riots in Paris, more than three hundred people  were injured. Scruton walked away from this event with a change in worldview and a strong leaning toward conservatism. Visits to communist- controlled Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1979 cemented his preference for conservatism and his distaste for the fraud of communism and socialism,  initiating a desire to do something about it. From thereon he dedicated himself to helping organize underground seminars for the young people oppressed behind the iron curtain.
 
Sir Roger examines a brief history of conservatism in the twentieth century of England in regard to Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. Although  he appreciates what Margaret Thatcher stood for, he argues that she had many conservative ideals but never used the conservative framework to organize her overall political strategy. Instead she organized around market economics, which was not always effective in the social, cultural, and legal areas. Peter Robinson argues that Winston Churchill did a much better job of organizing around conservative ideals but eventually lost an election because he didn’t have the vocabulary or the focus on free markets. They discuss the tenuous relationship between free markets and conservative ideals that have not mixed well together in British politics.
 
Robinson and Sir Roger discuss the 2016 political upset of Brexit in the United Kingdom and how the political analysts failed to predict the vote outcome, much like what happened in November 2016 in the United States. They deliberate how  the issues around immigration from Eastern Europe to the United Kingdom contributed to Brexit, in addition to general dissatisfaction with the European Union.  Thus, in the cases of both the United Kingdom and the United States, the media and intellectuals ignored the will of the “indigenous working classes” who made their voices known through their votes.
 
About the Guest: Sir Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Scruton is an English writer and philosopher who has published more than fifty books in philosophy, aesthetics, and politics. His book discussed in this episode was How to Be a Conservative;  it was published in 2014. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches in both England and America and is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington. DC. He is currently teaching an MA in philosophy course for the University of Buckingham. Sir Scruton was knighted in 2016 by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to philosophy, teaching and public education.”

Sir Roger Scruton: How to Be a Conservative

In an era of technology and automation, does tough physical work still matter? Victor Davis Hanson says the answer is yes -- and that, in fact, we have an innate desire to do work with our own two hands. Listen as he explores the cultural, intellectual, and psychological reasons that we should be wary of a future that promises the end of manual labor.

The Forgotten Virtues of Physical Labor

Victor Davis Hanson takes listeners on a behind-the-scenes look at his career, including his rise through academia, the decline of military history as a scholarly discipline, the importance of visiting battlefields, and why he felt compelled to write a new book on World War II

Ricochet.com

Behind the Book: The Second World Wars

Recorded on October 23, 2017
How were the Axis powers able to instigate the most lethal conflict in human history? Find out in part one of this episode as military historian, editor of Strategika, and Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, Victor Davis Hanson, joins Peter Robinson to discuss his latest book, The Second World Wars. 

Victor Davis Hanson explains how World War II initially began in 1939 as a multitude of isolated border blitzkriegs that Germany continued to win. In 1941, everything changed when Germany invaded their ally, the Soviet Union, and brought Japan into the war. He argues that because of the disparate nature of World War II, it’s much harder to think about as a monolithic conflict. 

World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history with approximately sixty million people killed. Victor Davis Hanson argues that World War II and the many lives lost was preventable, but due to a series of missteps by the Allied forces, Germany believed they were stronger and their enemies weaker than the reality. He argues “it took Soviet collusion, American indifference or isolation, and British or French appeasement in 30s” to convince Germany that they had the military capabilities to invade western Europe. In the aftermath of World War I, the allies believed the cost of the Great War had been too high, while Germany bragged about their defeat as no enemy soldiers had set foot on German soil.  Great Britain and France both chose appeasement over deterrence, which encouraged rather than deterred Hitler and Germany from moving forward with their plans.

Part I The Second World Wars with Victor Davis Hanson

Seventy-six years ago, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America went to war. Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover senior fellow and author of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, discusses lessons learned from that conflict’s successes and failures  and how they apply today.  
 
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Remembering Pearl Harbor

Recorded on October 23, 2017
Could the Axis powers have won? What are the counterfactuals for World War II?  Find out in part two of this episode as military historian, editor of Strategika, and Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson joins Peter Robinson to discuss his latest book, The Second World Wars. 

Victor Davis Hanson explains the counterfactuals of World War II, the “what-ifs” that easily could have changed the outcome of the war. If Hitler had not attacked Russia or the Japanese had not attacked Pearl Harbor, the USSR would have never turned on Germany and the United States would have never entered the war. Hanson argues that the leaders of the Axis powers overreached in their strategies, which ultimately caused their downfall. Hanson also explores the counterfactual surrounding the American commanders and the “what-ifs” that could have prevented American success in the war. 

Victor Davis Hanson also reflects on his own family history and connections to World War II and how it shaped him as both a person and a scholar in his life today. He talks about his motivations to write his latest book, The Second World Wars, and how his family history and the current political climate inspired him to write it.

Part 2: The Second World Wars with Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson describes how Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the legacy of the Obama Administration ... and explains why it's paying such rich dividends for the country.

Donald Trump, President NObama

Ordinarily, the second-place finisher in a presidential election doesn’t have a second political act. But the times aren’t ordinary and Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, is now a US Senate candidate in Utah. Hoover research fellow Lanhee Chen, Romney’s 2012 policy director, discusses what compelled his former boss to make the run and whether Romney will be a Trump White House ally or nemesis.
	
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Act II: Mitt Romney vs. the White House

Victor Davis Hanson argues that the best way to upend insular elites is to relocate political institutions out of cosmopolitan settings.

Rethinking the Geography of Power

How do we prevent war? How do we maintain peace? These questions have been posed by nations and people throughout history. The insights of historian and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson guide this documentary investigation of the United States’ successful deterrence of enemy aggression in the past and the efforts to sustain it in an era of rogue nations and nuclear proliferation.

The Price of Peace: A Conversation with Victor Davis Hanson and Peter Robinson

Victor Davis Hanson describes how President Trump’s unconventional approach to foreign policy has often proved to be more effective than the conventional wisdom proffered by the Washington establishment.

Trump and the Gordian Knot

Victor Davis Hanson describes the philosophical conceits employed by defenders of illegal immigration — and explains how they’re undermining American society.

The Ideology of Illegal Immigration

Kristen Eichensehr, Assistant Professor at UCLA School of Law, focuses on cybersecurity in a global context. Among other things, she focuses on extraterritoriality. Eichensehr talks about why extraterritoriality is particularly complex in the cyber context because a single document can be fragmented and stored in different places around the world at the same time. What and whose laws is the document subject to following?
 
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Kristen Eichensehr on Extraterritorial Issues of Domestic and International Law.

Recorded May 12, 2020, 11AM PST 

Hoover Institution Fellow Russell A. Berman: COVID-19 And Globalism.

The Hoover Institution presents an online virtual briefing series on pressing policy issues, including health care, the economy, democratic governance, and national security. Briefings will include thoughtful and informed analysis from our top scholars. 

ABOUT THE FELLOW 
Russell A. Berman is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He formerly served as Senior Advisor in the Policy Planning Staff of the United States Department of State.

To receive notifications about upcoming briefings, please sign up by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/gXjSSb.

Russell A. Berman: COVID-19 And Globalism | Hoover Virtual Policy Briefing

Recorded May 14, 2020, 11AM PST

Hoover Institution Fellows Eric Hanushek And Margaret Raymond discuss COVID-19 And Schools

The Hoover Institution presents an online virtual briefing series on pressing policy issues, including health care, the economy, democratic governance, and national security. Briefings will include thoughtful and informed analysis from our top scholars.

ABOUT THE FELLOWS
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. A leader in the economic analysis of educational issues, his research spans the impact on achievement of teacher quality, accountability, and class-size reduction. He pioneered measuring teacher quality on the basis of student achievement. 

Margaret “Macke” Raymond is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the founder and director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University. CREDO's work, which analyzes and evaluates programs that aim to improve outcomes for K-12 students in public schools, is heavily relied upon by policy makers at all levels of government.

To receive notifications about upcoming briefings, please sign up by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/gXjSSb.

Eric Hanushek And Margaret Raymond: COVID-19 And Schools

A panel discussion of the public health, rule of law, civil society and global policy dimensions of Taiwan’s response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring Dr. Jason Wang, Prof. Chang Wen-Chen, Prof. Fan Yun, and Lanhee Chen Ph.D. Moderated by Glenn Tiffert Ph.D.

Taiwan and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for the World

Recorded on June 11, 2020

Humanity’s control over infectious disease – achieved by modern science, good policy, and economic growth – is one of the most remarkable successes of our species. But can a history of this triumph help us evaluate how fragile it is? And what does the COVID-19 pandemic look like in the long perspective of human control over infectious disease?

Kyle Harper is Professor of Classics and Letters and the Senior Vice President and Provost at his alma mater, the University of Oklahoma. A historian of Rome, Harper is the author of three books, Slavery in the Late Roman World, awarded the James Henry Breasted Prize; From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality, which received the Award for Excellence in Historical Studies from the American Academy of Religion; and The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire, which has been translated into 11 languages. His next project is a history of infectious disease, from human origins to the present, which will bring the natural sciences into conversation with the study of the human past.

ABOUT THE HOOVER HISTORY WORKING GROUP
https://www.hoover.org/research-teams/history-working-group 

This interview is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.

Escape From Pandemics  Triumph Of Delusion

The Hoover Institution and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) hosted Ensuring America’s Innovation in Artificial Intelligence with Condoleezza Rice and Dr. Fei-Fei Li on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to radically transform every industry and every society. Such profound changes offer great opportunities to improve the human condition for the better, but also pose unprecedented challenges. As this new era arrives, the creators and designers of AI must account for diversity of thought and ensure systems are built to properly reflect what it means to be human. Guiding the future of AI in a responsible way that translates American values of equality, opportunity and individual freedom will be paramount to ensuring our shared dream of creating a better future for all of humanity.

Ensuring America’s Innovation In Artificial Intelligence

Steven Davis here. Kevin Murphy and I are launching a new podcast called “Economics, Applied.” We are professors at the University of Chicago and Senior Fellows at the Hoover Institution. Our podcast aims to bring evidence and economic thinking to major policy issues. We interview guests who have first-hand experience in the policy arena and we discuss the issues with leading scholars. In some episodes Kevin and I just sit back and take stock of our conversations with guests and draw lessons. Please tune in!

Trailer: Economics, Applied

Condoleezza Rice on the opt-in international system that arose after World War II and how it fostered prosperity.

A Global Commonwealth, If You Can Keep It

Robert Staiger on the roles of the GATT and WTO in fostering international trade and prosperity.

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