Historian and Classicist
Barry Strauss is Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor of Humanistic Studies and Chair of the Department of History at Cornell University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Classics. A historian of ancient Greece and Rome, he focuses on warfare and politics. His books have been translated into ten languages. His latest book, The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination, (Simon & Schuster, March 2015) has been hailed as “clear and compelling” by TIME, “brilliant” by the Wall Street Journal, “a fascinating murder mystery” by Fareed Zakaria (Book of the Week, Fareed Zakaria GPS-CNN), “an absolutely marvelous read” by The Times of London, and received three starred reviews from book journals (Kirkus, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness).
His Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece — and Western Civilization was named one of the best books of 2004 by the Washington Post. His Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar and the Genius of Leadership was named one of the best books of 2012 by Bloomberg. He is currently writing a book on how the Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine coped with change.
He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the German Academic Exchange Service, the Korea Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the American Academy in Rome. In recognition of his scholarship, he was named an Honorary Citizen of Salamis, Greece. In Rome, Italy this June he received the Lucio Colletti Journalism Prize for literature. He holds the Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching from Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.
