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D a v i d   G r e s s
Foredragsholder/Lecturer   Historiker/Historian   Forfatter/Writer  
Samfundsdebattør/Social commentator   Ph.d. i historie/Ph.D. in history
 
Areas of interest
 
- European political and intellectual history
- The American Civil War
- Italian and Spanish 20th-century history
- Classical civilization and its heritage
 
Education
1970-72 Philosophy and Classics, University of Copenhagen
1972-75 Classical Tripos, University of Cambridge
1975-81 Ph D in History, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
 
Positions held
1981 Research Fellow, Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark, and Lecturer, University of Copenhagen
1982-83 National Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
1983-84 Maître d’études, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
1984-92 Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
1989-91 Adjunct Professor, Department of History, Stanford University
1990 Visiting Assistant Professor, Odense University, Denmark
1992-95 John M. Olin Professor, Adelphi University
1993-94 Visiting Professor, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Fellow, Gonville and Caius College
1994-2000 Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
1995-2000 Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute and Co-Director of its History Academy
1996-2001 Senior Research Fellow, Danish Institute of International Affairs
1999 Visiting Professor of Political Science, Aarhus University
1999-2001 Associate Professor of Classics, Aarhus University, Denmark
2001-2003 John M. Olin Professor of The History of Civilizations, Boston University
2003-2008 Commentator, Jyllands-Posten
2011 Commentator, Berlingske Tidende
 
Summary of Research Activities
by Date and Main Subject
1975-79 The medieval papacy, canon law, origins of state sovereignty
1976-78 Marxism, environmentalism, and democracy
1978-79 Marxism, culture, and politics in Italy
1982-85 The West German peace movement of the 1950s and 1980s in the context of European
security policy and West German political culture
1984 Research trip to the Soviet Union
1984-88 Post-1945 West German political history; the origins, ideology, and post-1970 fiscal crisis
of the Scandinavian welfare state; post-1945 French intellectual history
1986 2-month research trip to Germany
1988 Research trips to Germany, France, UK
1990-91 7-month research and teaching stay in Denmark and Germany
1993-94 Cambridge: teaching and research on the idea of the West
1994-96 Completion of book on the West and of study of German foreign policy in historical and ideological context
1995-99 Foreign Policy Research Institute: citizenship and the teaching of history; European political culture and security policy during and after the Cold War
1995-99 Danish Institute of International Affairs: political change in the US; the United Nations; comparative social policy
2001- Fascism, war, and civil war in Italy; the history of freedom in European thought
2003- Causes and evolution of prosperity in free societies
2008- The Spanish Civil War. To see a summary of project click here
2012- The American Civil War (in Danish)
The Danish boarding school Sorø Academy 1970. David and his mother the Danish author Elsa Gress.
David's father the biographer and critic R.W.B. Lewis. David and his stepfather the artist Clifford Wright.
 
Selected presentations (since 1996)
1996 - University of Pennsylvania: “Origins of the Idea of the West”
- Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center: “German Political Culture”
- Danish Institute of International Affairs: “Italy after the 1996 Elections”
1997 - Heartland Symposium on the Future of the Welfare State, Madison, Wisconsin: “Demographic Challenges to Welfare State Policies”
-
History Institute, Foreign Policy Research Institute: “The History of History”
1998 - Danish Institute of International Affairs: “Religious Forces in Global Politics”
- Danish Institute, Rome: “Identity of Western Civilization,” response to panel debate on book From Plato to NATO
- History Institute, Foreign Policy Research Institute: “Multiculturalism in World History: The Greek and Roman Experience”
1999 - Danish Institute, Athens: ”Occidentalism: Is ’the West’ an Ideology?”
- Sorø Akademi, Sorø, Denmark: ”Is Liberalism Victorious?” 
- History Institute, Foreign Policy Research Institute: “The Geopolitics of History: Europe”
- Winchester College, England: ”Late Antiquity and the Origins of the West”
2000 - University of Hull, England: ”Spengler, Curtius, and the German Appropriation of the West after World War I”
- History Institute, Foreign Policy Research Institute: “The Cold War”
2001 - Sorø Akademi, Sorø, Denmark: ”The History of Human Rights”
- Ry Højskole, Ry, Denmark: ”Globalization: Challenge to the Welfare State?”
2002 - “The Geopolitics of Europe.”  Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia
2003 - “The Meaning of Mobility in Western Civilization.”  Bioethics Implications of Globalization Processes conference, National Research Council of Italy, Rome
- “The Post-Atlantic Situation.”   Symposium Im Westen was Neues, Volksbühne, Berlin
2004 Presentations on the U.S. presidential elections to academic and professional groups, Denmark
2005- Presentations on U.S. foreign policy; the welfare state; liberalism; globalization to academic and professional groups, Denmark
2008 “The Legacy of 1968 in the Culture”.  3rd annual Vanenburg Meeting, Madrid
2008 Presentations to seminars and roundtables on the U.S. presidential election
2009 “The Role of Leisure in Contemporary Liberal Societies”.  4th annual Vanenburg Meeting, Budapest
Important Research Grants and Subject
1981 Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen: the modern state
1988
- Committee on Security and Disarmament, Copenhagen: US policy toward Europe
- Director of Net Assessment, Department of Defense, Washington, DC: German foreign and security policy
1990-91 German Marshall Fund: political history of West Germany
1992 Committee on Security and Disarmament, Copenhagen: socio-cultural trends in US
1992-94 Director of Net Assessment, Department of Defense, Washington, DC: foreign policy and long-term political and cultural trends in unified Germany
1993-94 Smith Richardson Foundation, New York: the idea of the West
1994 John M. Olin Foundation: the idea of the West
1995 Summer fellowship, Earhart Foundation
1995-98 fellowship at Foreign Policy Research Institute, funded by John M. Olin Foundation, Donner Foundation, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
2001-03 Chair at Boston University partly funded by John M. Olin Foundation
2003 Summer fellowship, Earhart Foundation
2004-05 Jyllands-Postens Fund, Denmark, for research on the history of freedom and the origins of economic growth
Other Professional Activities
1968-88 Translation of nonfiction works from English, German and French to Danish and from Danish to English
1980-81 Organizer, chairman and moderator of the First and Second European Congress on Freedom and the Future, The European College, Stege, Denmark
1985-95 Consulting to staff of US Department of Defense on European political and security developments
1993-94 Advisor to founding board, The College of the Baltic, Aabenraa, Denmark
2004- Member of advisory commission on the future of the welfare state in Denmark chaired by Professor Steen Hildebrandt, Aarhus Business School
2004 Member of the board, Center for Political Studies, Denmark
2004-09 Member of the board, Jyllands-Postens Fond (owner of Jyllands-Posten)
2007-08 Member of the Danish government’s committee to produce a “Canon of Democratic Thought”
Language skills
Bilingual in English and Danish.  Fluent in German, French, Italian, Spanish.  Read Latin and classical Greek.  Reading knowledge of Dutch.  Slight Russian.