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.
'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.
[citation needed] 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.
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.
[citation needed] 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.
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.