David Richard Gress (born 29 January 1953) is a Danish historian, known for his 1998 survey From Plato to Nato on Western identity and grand narratives. Life He was born in Copenhagen, the son of R. W. B. Lewis, an American literary historian, and the Danish writer, playwright and essayist Elsa Gress. The two were not married, which is why Gress uses his mother's maiden name. She subsequently married the American painter Charles Clifford Wright. He attended Sorø Akademis Skole. He was later educated in Classics at Cambridge University, England, and Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. in medieval history in 1981. From 1982 to 1992 he was a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, publishing articles and books on international strategy, the West German peace movement, U.S. foreign policy, Nordic politics, and a history of West Germany. From 1993 to 1995 he was visiting fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and lecturer in international history there. From 1996 to 1999 he was a fellow at the Danish Institute of International Affairs and from 1999 to 2001 assistant professor of Classics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. In 2001-03 he was professor of the history of civilizations at Boston University and has since 2003 been based in Denmark, where he continues to publish articles and books in political philosophy, the origins of Western prosperity, contemporary history and political culture. He is a well-known face in the public debate of Denmark. He has been a fellow of the Danish Institute of International Affairs and director of the Center for Studies on America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia. he has been a columnist in the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. David Gress is also a frequently used media commentator, and a senior fellow of the Danish think tank CEPOS. Work In his first book, 'Demokrati eller?' Gress provided a justification of liberal democracy. It included a defense of ecological production, something that Gress has since disavowed. His doctoral dissertation was a critical edition of a 13th-century papal biography. 'Peace and Survival' was a philosophical and political history and critique of the pacifist mentality, with particular reference to the West German peace movement, which in his view was surrendering to Soviet power. Apart from various shorter works on Nordic politics and U.S. foreign policy, his next major work followed on from 'Peace and