Leo Strauss and his students have long been accused of mendacity,
elitism, and militarism, but the Iraq War has prompted
unprecedented levels of caustic and inaccurate denunciations.
Inappropriate criticisms have issued from artists (Tim Robbins),
politicians (Ron Paul), journalists (Joe Klein), and even highly
lauded scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Gordon Wood,
Douglas Massey, Stephen Holmes, Anne Norton, Shadia Drury, Sheldon
Wolin, John Pocock, John Yolton, Nicholas Xenos, and Brian Leiter.
In Straussophobia, Peter Minowitz provides a methodical and
detailed critique of the major offenders, especially of Drury, who
maintains that Strauss established a "covert tyranny" that would
keep the Western world "mired in perpetual war." In replying to
such charges and to various authors who belittle Strauss's
contributions as a scholar Minowitz highlights the imaginative yet
meticulous manner in which Strauss interpreted Thucydides, Plato,
Xenophon, Farabi, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Carl Schmitt.
Straussophobia also provides both a comprehensive assessment of
Strauss's 1933 letter that commended "fascist, authoritarian, and
imperial" principles, and a compelling account of Strauss's
influence, or lack of influence, on neoconservative promoters of
the Iraq War (e.g., Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Lewis
Libby). The book likewise breaks new ground in employing diversity
discourse to explain and combat the bigotry and buffoonery that
pervade attacks against Strauss and Straussians and in drawing on
Strauss to illuminate the distortions that mar some widely-used
arguments for affirmative action.
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