1. Introduction; 2. A significant life; 3. Constructing a methodology; 4. The method under assault; 5. Politics as practice; 6. Political theory as political practice; 7. Conclusion.
Offers a strikingly original interpretation of Leo Strauss, his 'political philosophy', and the connection of both to the American conservative movement.
Paul Gottfried is Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College. He is the author of numerous books, including Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium and After Liberalism.
'Paul Gottfried's book shows evidence of a lifetime of more
intimate engagement with Straussians. He is respectful of the
master, formed in 'a richer cultural world than his followers -
indeed a Teutonic one that most of his prominent students
detested'. Gottfried is clearly disappointed in Strauss's
'epigones', who are happy to refute their poorly informed but
respectable critics on the Left but who refuse to engage in serious
debate with their learned and perceptive critics on the Right.'
Mark Shiffman, Modern Age
'I've always wanted to read a critique of Strauss - and more
particularly, of Straussianism - which didn't devolve into leftist
hyperbole or paranoia. This is the first I've read. Gottfried's
critique is really from the right - against Strauss's postmodern
reading of texts … against the abolition of history as well as
historicism, against the reclusiveness and defensiveness of the
Straussian enclave, and against their fixation with Western
weakness in which the world is forever 1938. He persuaded me that
the core of Straussianism is political, not philosophical - and a
true competitor to what I would call conservatism, properly
understood. None of this takes away from the truly remarkable
scholarship that Strauss and Straussians have given us, or their
useful antidote to the idea that all our core debates about the
world have been resolved. But it helps reveal the deeply
un-conservative and profoundly radical nature of neoconservatism,
and its mania for imperialism and Israel.' Andrew Sullivan, The
Daily Dish
'[The only book that] specifically offers a right-wing critique of
this German-Jewish émigré professor who is so often assumed to be a
right-winger himself … Paul Gottfried's book… is sufficiently
magnanimous that it may lead readers to a new appreciation for
Strauss.' Daniel McCarthy, The University Bookman
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