
By Catherine H. Zuckert
Is Leo Strauss really an highbrow forebear of neoconservatism and a strong strength in shaping Bush management international coverage? the reality approximately Leo Strauss places this query to relaxation, revealing for the 1st time how the preferred media got here to perpetuate an oversimplified view of a fancy and wide-ranging thinker. In doing so, it corrects our belief of Strauss, supplying the easiest common creation to be had to the political considered this misunderstood figure. Catherine and Michael Zuckert—both former scholars of Strauss—guide readers right here to a nuanced knowing of the way Strauss’s political suggestion matches into his broader philosophy. difficult the information that Strauss used to be an rigid conservative who within the footsteps of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt, the Zuckerts contend that Strauss’s signature suggestion used to be the necessity for a go back to the ancients. via their paintings, they finish that Strauss used to be a sober defender of liberal democracy, conscious of either its strengths and its weaknesses. Balanced and available, the reality approximately Leo Strauss is a must-read for an individual who desires to extra totally understand this enigmatic thinker and his much-disputed legacy. “The fact approximately Leo Strauss is the main balanced and insightful booklet but written approximately Strauss’s notion, scholars, and political impact. It dispels myths promulgated by means of either neighbors and foes and persuasively lines the conflicting paths that American thinkers indebted to Strauss have taken.”—William Galston, Brookings establishment