Survival' to provide a political, social, and economic history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The first edition appeared in the fall of 1989, a French edition in 1992 and a second in English in 1993; these included a survey of the unification of Germany and a look back at the history of East Germany. From Plato to Nato was, amongst other things, an intervention in the campus culture wars, explaining that the narrative model of 'The West', in the general style of Will Durant, had become threadbare. His proposed replacement marked him as, in general terms, a Burkean conservative. He argued that 'The West' was in operative terms much more of a complex compound of elements he identified as 'Old West', of Roman and Germanic provenance, with modern Adam Smith economics, than a pure play on the Enlightenment philosophy. The book's development is complex and somewhat muddied by the wish also to be inclusive of other conservative views. Norman Davies, a Polish history specialist critical of incoherent definitions of Europe viewed from the Atlantic end, has lent some support to the outline thesis. Gress has further identified the campus debates as a target, with an attack on Martin Bernal and other interventions in U.S. and British journals of opinion. From 2003 to 2012 he published mostly in Danish, including two books and numerous articles, reviews, and comments in Danish daily newspapers, chiefly Jyllands-Posten, but from 2009 also Politiken. One, more polemical, focus has been criticism of the Nordic welfare state and environmental policy, another has been periodic surveys of international publications and research on U.S. politics and society, history, and religion. He has been one of the most outspoken Danish opponents of the scientific consensus on climate change, and has accordingly received heavy criticism by Danish scientists. Major works "Demokrati eller?" (1978) "Gesta Innocentii III: Introduction, Text and Commentary" (1981) doctoral dissertation "Peace and Survival" (1985) "A History of West Germany" (1989) with Dennis L. Bark; French edition 1992, second English edition 1993 "From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents" (1998) "Det bedste guld - en bog om frihed" ('The best gold - a book on freedom') (2005) "Velstandens kilder" ('The Origins of Wealth', in cooperation with CEPOS) (2007) "Egne veje" ('Own paths'), memoirs (2011) References External links David Gress' website 1953 births Living people 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Bryn Mawr