Encounter’s Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Gala will also mark the inauguration of an ambitious, multi-year project called The Golden Thread Initiative. Named for Encounter’s forthcoming multi-volume history of Western civilization by James Hankins of Harvard University and Allen Guelzo of Princeton, this ambitious project aims to challenge the many efforts, in and out of the academy, to undermine the foundational ideas of Western civilization and the ideals that undergird the unique dynamism of American self-government.

This new history of Western civilization will take its place alongside Encounter’s many other textbooks and public activities designed to advance an affirmative understanding of our history and heritage.

To learn more about The Golden Thread Initiative contact: goldenthread@encounterbooks.com

Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he focuses on classics and military history.

He is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history, and essays on contemporary culture.

He has written or edited more than twenty-five books, the latest of which is The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America (2021).

Joshua T. Katz

Joshua T. Katz is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on higher education, language and culture, the classical tradition, and the humanities broadly conceived.

Educated at Yale, Oxford, and Harvard, he was Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Princeton before joining AEI. The recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, he has in recent years been an outspoken advocate for free speech, academic freedom, and such disfavored ideas as truth, rigor, and merit.

In 2020, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni named him a Hero of Intellectual Freedom; in 2022–23, he was a Visiting Critic at The New Criterion, the partner enterprise of Encounter Books.

Rebekah Mercer

Introducer

Rebekah Mercer graduated from Stanford University with a dual B.S. in Biology and Mathematics and with an M.S. in Operations Research and Engineering Economic Systems. After graduation, she returned to New York City and worked for a hedge fund before retiring to raise her four children.

She is president of the New York-based Mercer Family Foundation and serves on the board of a number of non-profit organizations, including The Heritage Foundation.

She is a Trustee Designate of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the chairman of the board of directors of the Government Accountability Institute.

Yuval Levin

Introducer

Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy.

He is the founder and editor of National Affairs, a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times.

He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, most recently A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream (Basic Books, 2020).

Richard W. Graber

Toast

Richard W. Graber is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Rick served as the Senior Vice President for Global Government Relations for Honeywell International.

He served as the United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2009.

The Encounter Prize for Advancing American Ideals

Scott W. Atlas (2022)
The Honorable Devin Nunes (2019)
Rebekah Mercer (2018)

The Jeane Kirkpatrick Prize for Academic Freedom

Heather Mac Donald (2022)
Peter W. Wood (2019)
Sir Roger Scruton (2018)