A large neoclassical cityscape painting depicting ancient Greek and Roman architecture, with grand temples, columns, statues, and boats on the water, suggesting a bustling port city from antiquity under a clear sky.

New

1776 in Mind: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Panel discussion with Tim Stuart-Buttle and Brian Young, National Association of Scholars

Selected Writing & Media

From Cicero to Trump, They're All in Plutarch's Lives

The Wall Street Journal, with Rebecca Burgess

Machiavelli the Moderate

Claremont Review of Books, a review of Catherine Zuckert's Machiavelli's Politics

Gibbon's Christianity: Religion, Reason, and the Fall of Rome

Interview, Institute of Intellectual History, University of St Andrews

The Life of Leadership

Law & Liberty podcast with Rebecca Burgess on Kissinger's Leadership and Plutarch's Parallel Lives

Book cover of 'Plutarch's Politics: Between City and Empire' by Hugh Liebert, featuring the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus addressing Spartan citizens.

Books

Plutarch’s Politics

A study of ambition, empire, and the character of political life in Plutarch's Lives. Winner of the Delba Winthrop Award for Excellence in Political Science.

Book cover titled "Gibbon's Christianity: Religion, Reason, and the Fall of Rome" by Hugh Liebert, featuring an ancient Roman ruin with columns, an arch, a statue, and people gathered outdoors under a partly cloudy sky.

Gibbon’s Christianity

Religion, reason, and the fall of Rome in Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

About

Hugh Liebert writes for general readers about politics, history, and civic life. His essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, First Things, and The Point. He is currently writing a book on ambition and the political life of small towns.

Liebert is a professor of political science at West Point, where he directs the Dawkins Scholars Program and is founding co-director of the American Foundations Program. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Plutarch's Politics (winner of the Delba Winthrop Award) and Gibbon's Christianity. His scholarship examines how ancient and early modern thinkers understood ambition, citizenship, and the purpose of politics.

Hugh Liebert, West Point

Contact

For speaking invitations, interview requests, or general correspondence, please reach out using the form below.