Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss was a central figure in the twentieth century renaissance of political philosophy. The essays of The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss provide a comprehensive and non-partisan survey of the major themes and problems that constituted Strauss's work. These include his revival of the great 'quarrel between the ancients and the moderns,' his examination of tension between Jerusalem and Athens, and most controversially his recovery of the tradition of esoteric writing. The volume also examines Strauss's complex relation to a range of contemporary political movements and thinkers, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Gershom Scholem, as well as the creation of a distinctive school of 'Straussian' political philosophy.

"This collection of essays is learned, well argued, intelligent, and written by fine scholars from departments of philosophy and political science who are clearly independent thinkers...For those who are interested in Strauss's critique of modernity, or the nature of his debt to Heidegger, or his Spinozistic tendencies, this volume offers a very good place to start, especially for insiders." Perspectives on Politics, John R. Wallach, Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY

Steven B. Smith, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University, is the author of Reading Leo Strauss, Spinoza's Book of Life, and Spinoza, Liberalism, and Jewish Identity. His publications have appeared most recently in Hebraic Political Studies, Review of Politics, and Political Theory, and he has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel. Professor Smith has held the position of Master of Branford College at Yale since 1996.