A lifelong educator and frequent public speaker, Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is a Visiting Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C. She is a Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, and she serves as the Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC), where she is also Founding Director of the Victims of Communism Museum.
 
Spalding is the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism and the co-author of A Brief History of the Cold War. Her scholarly and popular articles have been published widely, including in Journal of Church and State, Orbis, Wilson Quarterly, Providence, The American Spectator, Law & Liberty, H-Diplo, and Claremont Review of Books.
 
Spalding has taught on subjects ranging from the American presidency, religion and politics, and comparative ideologies to U.S. foreign policy, national security, and international relations at Pepperdine University, Claremont McKenna College, George Mason University, and Catholic University of America. Her expertise is regularly sought for documentaries, podcasts, and other media outlets. She also serves on the Board of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).
 
Spalding holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in international politics and political theory from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in politics from Hillsdale College. She lives with her family in Arlington, Virginia.

Recent Publications

“An Old War and a New President,” Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy (August 15, 2025)

Spalding, Elizabeth. “PragerU Series on Communism.” PragerU, May 13, 2024. https://www.prageru.com/search?q=Elizabeth%2Bspalding.

Spalding, Elizabeth, and Catherine O’Connor. Ten Great Speeches Against Communism. Washington, D.C.: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, 2025.

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Elizabeth Edwards Spalding, and Catherine O’Connor. Communism and Its Crimes: Learning Through History and Literature. Washington, D.C.: Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, 2025.

Recent Interviews

Second Annual Lee Edwards Lecture in Conservative Leadership, THF, May 2025

Courses Taught

Van Andel Graduate School of Government

• American Presidency
• The Cold War
• Marxism, Then and Now
• Statecraft of John Quincy Adams and Woodrow Wilson