The European and American media has recently been rife with dramatic surmises about the possible significance of the impact of Leo Strauss’s political theory on contemporary American political culture and policy. However, journalists who have recently been moved to theorize in print about Strauss’s teaching seemingly have not devoted much time to a study of his philosophic corpus. They have advanced extravagant (and even preposterous) claims about what Strauss thought or taught. These assertions have been marked by their lack of substantiation through genuine quotations from, or even through accurate summaries of, what Strauss wrote. This lecture will provide a brief introductory guide to how Strauss’s writings may be said to offer a deeper understanding of contemporary politics.

Thomas L. Pangle holds a university professorship in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has been awarded the Benton Bowl Prize, the Yale University Prize (for contribution to education in politics), and the Robert Foster Cherry Great Teacher of the World Prize from Baylor University. He is the author of Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism (1973); The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral Vision of the American Founders and the Philosophy of Locke (1988); The Ennobling of Democracy: The Challenge of the Postmodern Age (1992); The Learning of Liberty: The Educational Ideas of the American Founders, coauthored with wife Lorraine (1993); Justice Among Nations: On the Moral Basis of Power and Peace, coauthored with Peter J. Ahrensdorf (1999); and Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham (2003).