Hoover Institution
 |
 | |
 Hoover Tower in May 2014 | |
| Abbreviation | Hoover |
|---|---|
| Formation | June 1919 |
| Founder | Herbert Hoover |
| Type | Public policy think tank |
| Tax ID no. | 94-1156365 |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) organization |
Professional title | The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace |
| Location(s) | 434 Galvez Mall Stanford, California (Stanford University), U.S. 94305 |
| Coordinates | 37°26′N 122°10′W / 37.43°N 122.17°W |
Director | Condoleezza Rice |
Parent organization | Stanford University |
| Subsidiaries | Hoover Institution Press Hoover Institution Library and Archives Uncommon Knowledge Battlegrounds Defining Ideas Hoover Digest |
| Revenue | $111.4 million[1] (2025) |
| Expenses | $130 million[1] (2025) |
| Endowment | $921 million[1] (2025) |
| Award | National Humanities Medal |
| Website | hoover |
Formerly called | Hoover War Collection |
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (formerly the Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace),[2] commonly known as the Hoover Institution, is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and limited government.[3][4][5] While the institution is officially a unit of Stanford University, it maintains an independent board of overseers and relies on its own income and donations.[6][7][8] It is widely described as conservative, although its directors have contested the idea that it is partisan.[9][10]
The institution began in 1919 as a library founded by Stanford alumnus Herbert Hoover prior to his presidency in order to house his archives gathered during World War I.[11] The well-known Hoover Tower was built to house the archives, then known as the Hoover War Collection (now the Hoover Institution Library and Archives), and contained material related to World War I, World War II, and other global events. The collection was renamed and transformed into a research institution ("think tank") during the mid-20th century. Its mission, as described by Herbert Hoover in 1959, is "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."[12]
It has staffed numerous jobs in Washington for Republican presidents from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump.[13] It has provided work for people who previously had important government jobs. Notable Hoover fellows and alumni include Nobel Prize laureates Henry Kissinger, Milton Friedman, and Gary Becker; economist Thomas Sowell; scholars Niall Ferguson and Richard Epstein; former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich; and former secretary of defense James N. Mattis. In 2020, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice became the institution's director. It divides its fellows into separate research teams to work on various subjects, including Economic Policy, History, Education, and