This concise and accessible introduction to Strauss's thought provides, for wider audience, a bridge to his more complex theoretical work. Editor Pangle has gathered five of Strauss's previously unpublished lectures and five hard-to-find published writings and has arranged them so as to demonstrate the systematic progression of the major themes that underlay Strauss's mature work.
"[These essays] display the incomparable insight and remarkable range of knowledge that set Strauss's works apart from any other twentieth-century philosopher's."—Charles R. Kesler, National Review
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. From 1949 to 1968, he was professor of political science at the University of Chicago. He authored numerous books, including The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, Natural Right and History, and Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, among others.
Thomas L. Pangle is the Joe R. Long Chair in Democratic Studies and codirector of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Core Texts and Ideas at the University of Texas at Austin. His many books include, most recently,
The Socratic Way of Life, also published by the University of Chicago Press.