Authors:
Opens a new path to understanding Straussian political philosophy
Draws a more complete picture of Strauss's complex thinking than has previously existed
Raises new questions about Strauss's life and thought
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This is the first book-length examination of the impact Leo Strauss’ immigration to the United States had on this thinking. Adi Armon weaves together a close reading of unpublished seminars Strauss taught at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s with an interpretation of his later works, all of which were of course written against the backdrop of the Cold War. First, the book describes the intellectual environment that shaped the young Strauss’ worldview in the Weimar Republic, tracing those aspects of his thought that changed and others that remained consistent up until his immigration to America. Armon then goes on to explore the centrality of Karl Marx to Strauss’s intellectual biography. By analyzing an unpublished seminar Strauss taught with Joseph Cropsey at the University of Chicago in 1960, Armon shows how Strauss’ fragmentary, partial engagement with Marx in writing obscured the important role that Marxism actually played as an intellectual challenge to his later political thinking. Finally, the book explores the manifestations of Straussian doctrine in postwar America through reading Strauss’ The City and Man (1964) as a representative of his political teaching.
Reviews
“Adi Armon makes a signal contribution to the literature on Leo Strauss and his lifelong anti-communist convictions. In the midst of the Cold War, Strauss claimed that only liberal education—properly rooted in a canon of pre-modern political philosophers—could provide the antidote to the inherent ills born of the poor puddle of liberalism. However, Armon presents fascinating new archival material to show Strauss’s surprising engagement with Marx’s writings, and why Strauss identified Karl Marx as the true enemy of the West.” (Eugene Sheppard, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought, Brandeis University, USA)
Authors and Affiliations
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University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, USA
Adi Armon
About the author
Adi Armon is a Visiting Assistant Professor with the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Leo Strauss Between Weimar and America
Authors: Adi Armon
Translated by: Michelle Bubis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24389-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24388-3Published: 08 October 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-24391-3Published: 08 October 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-24389-0Published: 25 September 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 226
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory