Francis Bacon's "Inquiry Touching Human Nature" is a study of Francis Bacon's moral philosophy in its relation to the enlightenment project he helped launch. Since Bacon is one of the founders of technological modernity, the book presents a meditation on the presuppositions and character of modern life. In its distinctiveness, modern life is characterized by a rejection as well as a reinterpretation of the classical and Christian approaches to life and conceptions of virtue. Svetozar Minkov follows closely Bacon's confrontation with the traditional views on courage, moderation, justice, wisdom, love, and ways of dealing with death and general adversity. Bacon had a comprehensive vision of the human situation. He can help us think through the relation between power and wisdom. And because he saw the costs or dangers of modern life as clearly as he predicted, and helped bring about, its advancements and boons, Bacon is a thinker who addresses directly and deeply our own perplexities.

Enlightening Revolutions_a collection of outstanding essays by highly prominent scholars_examines the different ways in which the relation between politics and philosophy has been understood and enacted over the ages. The volume sheds light on key theoretical and historical issues: the intriguing position and historical influence of medieval Jewish and Islamic rationalism; the advent of modernity in the thought of Machiavelli and Hobbes; the prospects for greatness in modernity as seen by Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift, the Founding Fathers, and Alexis de Tocqueville; and the prospects for philosophic excellence in modern times as seen by, among others, Montesquieu and Leo Strauss, as well as through the eyes of Plato and the Bible. The volume is dedicated to Ralph Lerner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. It honors Lerner's splendid teaching and scholarship over half a century, and testifies in some measure to his enlightening, enlivening, gracefully witty, and humanizing activity and example.

Enlightening Revolutions-a collection of outstanding essays by highly prominent scholars-examines the different ways in which the relation between politics and philosophy has been understood and enacted over the ages. The volume sheds light on key theoretical and historical issues: the intriguing position and historical influence of medieval Jewish and Islamic rationalism; the advent of modernity in the thought of Machiavelli and Hobbes; the prospects for greatness in modernity as seen by Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift, the Founding Fathers, and Alexis de Tocqueville; and the prospects for philosophic excellence in modern times as seen by, among others, Montesquieu and Leo Strauss, as well as through the eyes of Plato and the Bible. The volume is dedicated to Ralph Lerner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. It honors Lerner's splendid teaching and scholarship over half a century, and testifies in some measure to his enlightening, enlivening, gracefully witty, and humanizing activity and example.

Any presentation of political philosophy in the 20th century is radically incomplete without Leo Strauss. The appearance of this collection is particularly important given the relentless but shifting interest in his influence and thought in recent years. An emphasis on what Strauss has directly published, the editors Lenzner and Minkov assert, must retain primacy when establishing his full range of importance. "Though Strauss scholars, to say nothing of others, have reason to be grateful for the publication in recent years of many of Strauss’s unpublished lectures and essays as well as his correspondence with some of his leading contemporaries, the publication of these materials has tended to overshadow the serious study of those works upon which he sought to establish his reputation and legacy." The most complete record of Strauss includes his full books together with his other published writings, and the intention of this volume is to present in one collection everything Strauss chose to publish in English that has not already appeared as a full length book. The material is arranged chronologically so as to provide the most direct connection to the author himself and avoid undue categorization by the editors. "Among the highlights of these works published between 1937 and 1972 are striking formulations not to be found in his books on the relationship between philosophy and society, which is perhaps the most prominent theme in Strauss’s corpus taken as a whole; rare “personal” statements that shed light on his self-understanding as a philosopher; his first writing devoted solely to a classical thinker ('The Spirit of Sparta or the Taste of Xenophon'); his first piece devoted to Plato, 'On a New Interpretation of Plato’s Political Philosophy', his most searching engagement of Jean-Jacques Rousseau; his first treatment of the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli and a wonderful, later treatment of Machiavelli’s relation to ancient writers; and a critical review of a book on Xenophon’s Hellenica which expands Xenophon’s own work." This new compilation of Strauss's scattered work is invaluable for those interested in the political philosopher, to be sure. But it is also an important contribution to the field in general as well as the history of philosophy.

Natural Right and History is widely recognized as Strauss's most influential work. The six lectures, written while Strauss was at the New School, and a full transcript of the 1949 Walgreen Lectures show Strauss working toward the ideas he would present in fully matured form in his landmark work. In them, he explores natural right and the relationship between modern philosophers and the thought of the ancient Greek philosophers, as well as the relation of political philosophy to contemporary political science and to major political and historical events, especially the Holocaust and World War II. Previously unpublished in book form, Strauss's lectures are presented here in a thematic order that mirrors Natural Right and History and with interpretive essays by J. A. Colen, Christopher Lynch, Svetozar Minkov, Daniel Tanguay, Nathan Tarcov, and Michael Zuckert that establish their relation to the work. Rounding out the book are copious annotations and notes to facilitate further study.