MACMILLAN Leo Strauss Between Weimar and America

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  Adi Armon weaves together a close reading of unpublished seminars Strauss taught at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s with an interpretation of his later works, all of which were of course written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 By analyzing an unpublished seminar Strauss taught with Joseph Cropsey at the University of Chicago in 1960, Armon shows how Strauss’ fragmentary, partial engagement with Marx in writing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. Review “There is much literature surrounding the thought of Leo Strauss but virtually nothing has been written about Strauss's critical encounter with Marxism and the important ways in which this interacted with the evolution of his thought as he moved from the Weimar Republic to Europe and then the United States. At the same time, and in illuminating manner, Adi Armon demonstrates the subtle ways in which Strauss's overall political thought, its consistencies, famous ambiguities and hidden messages, underwent change in his late Chicago exile. An excellent addition to the fascination Strauss - that shy, often maligned yet also frequently worshiped German-Jewish thinker - still exerts.” (Steven Aschheim, Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University, Israel) “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) From the Back Cover 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. About the Author Adi Armon is a Visiting Assistant Professor with the George L. Mosse Program in History