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Shadia B. Drury
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Leo Strauss and the American Right Hardcover – January 1, 1997

by Shadia B. Drury (Author)
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States for his first term and the conservative revolution that was slowly developing in the United States finally emerged in full-throated roar. Who provoked the conservative revolution? Shadia Drury provides a fascinating answer to the question as she looks at the work of Leo Strauss, a seemingly reclusive German Jewish emigrà and scholar, who was one of the most influential individuals in the conservative movement, a man widely seen as the godfather of the Republican partyâ€s failed “Contract With America.†Among his students were individuals such as Alan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind. Strauss influenced the work of Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb and William Kristol, as well as Chief Justice Clarence Thomas and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Drury delves deeply into Straussâ€s work at the University of Chicago where he taught his students that, if they truly loved America, they must save her from her fateful enchantment with liberalism. Leo Strauss and the American Right is a fascinating piece of work that anyone interested in understanding our current political situation will want to read.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Palgrave Macmillan
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0312126891
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312126896
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition (January 1, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312126891
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312126896
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

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Shadia B. Drury

Shadia B. Drury
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Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

javed yehya
5.0 out of 5 stars neo-conservatism as ideology
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
one of the best and lucidly argued presentation of neo-conservatism and the alleged 'guru' of the movement, Leo Strauss...it is a solid refutation of this
ideology.
5 people found this helpful
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Jeffrey P. Smith
2.0 out of 5 stars Strauss as Philosopher or Demigogue?
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2005
The tendentious nature of this book, the fact that it is a politically charged polemic as opposed to a philosophic critique of a thinker, relegates this book to the myriad of yearly right and left wing fodder that we see on the book shelves. Strauss's thought, is first extremely learned, and secondly complex and subtle. If only this author had approached Strauss's texts with the humility and dedication that Strauss himself had brought to the likes of Plato, Machiavelli, and Locke, we might begin to tease out a very different portrait of the man that is found in this book. While Struass's thought my have been possible to interpret as synonymous with the agend of the likes of Newt Gingrich, it does not stand to reason that Strauss would have accented to their interpretation of his teaching. To claim that Strauss had, " no use for liberalism and little use for democracy" appears to be nothing short of academic dishonesty. Strauss if he is to be read for what he said very well understood the historical and natural implications of liberal democracy as the most just regime of mankind. And after leaving what was Hitler's Germany, a Jew and intellectual, Strauss knew very precisely the oppostunities afforded to him in the American landscape.
15 people found this helpful
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Fred C. Dobbs
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
Great analysis of a bankrupt philosophy
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Stephen M. Kerwick
1.0 out of 5 stars Wishing I'd Seen these Reviews Earlier
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2000
I bought this book a few years ago and just had a chance to read it cover to cover this week. I notice that of the 5 reviews below, 4 are unfavorable in varying degrees. They are all accurate in direct proportion to their level of criticism. This text is little more than a polemic.
I recently went back over Alan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind (after reading Saul Bellow's wonderful Ravelstein), which was my chief source of Straussian thought other than college texts read over a generation ago. Bloom repeatedly castigated (North) American academics for their doctrinaire orthodoxy and lack of genuine philosophic vision. Ms. Drury's text demonstrates his point much more effectively, although presumably unintentionally. Unlike Strauss, Bloom and others in their school, she is never able to justify or explain her value programming and simply proceeds from the (incorrect) assumption that the reader shares her basic premises which differ from those of the Straussians. Further, the book has a repetitive, sing song prose style that bespeaks a lack of editing. The same sentence form, and in some cases even the same sentence, appears so often as to be remarkable even to the casual reader. This makes for tedious reading.
One thing the Ms. Drury does do, almost to perfection, is to set up a "straw man" argument using an oversimplified or disorted paraphrase of a Straussian or Bloomian thought and then demolishing it in a way that would be impossible if the point were viewed in full context. If that is what you are after, this is a valued resource. Otherwise, don't repeat my mistake.
49 people found this helpful
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David
3.0 out of 5 stars Leo Strauss and the American Right through a Glass, Darkly
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2010
I can't give a very complete review since I read the book two years ago; however, I was surprised that some reviewers are praising it and so wanted to get my two cents in.

If Drury gave the ideas of the people she critiques an objective treatment, this would be an excellent book since she covers such interesting terrain. However, she dislikes anyone who is not a liberal so much that she is completely deaf to them. I will give only one example, but I think it shows how misleading her readings can be.

She writes: "Strauss points out that the greatest philosophers, those who manage to rise above convention altogether, are pederasts" (p. 62).

Her endnote for this claim points to _The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism_ pages 116–17.

Looking up those pages, one sees that Strauss is discussing the relationship between Plato’s presentation of Aristophanes in the _Symposium_ and Aristophanes' own philosophic views in his comedies. In that context, Strauss writes:

"We record here the fact that the hero of the Birds, who succeeds in dethroning the gods and in becoming the ruler of the universe through the birds, is the pederast Peisthetaerus" (p. 117).

To go from the fact that a character in a comedy written by an ancient Greek playwright is a pederast to Drury's claim that for Strauss the greatest philosophers are pederasts shows how arbitrary and malicious her interpretations are, or rather that the principle guiding her interpretation is that whatever Strauss writes may be interpreted in the most nefarious way possible. In the process, she here also misses Strauss' point, since what he is actually discussing is Aristophanes' view of the relation between pederasty and dethroning the gods.

Her book is really a polemic and as such Drury is more concerned with deriding her opponents than in giving them a fair hearing. However, if she would have the mindset to give them a fair hearing, then I think she would see that there is no need for all-out war but rather strategic queries. On the other hand, since she seems to be a committed Lockean-Millian liberal maybe for her there is a need for an all-out war since Strauss is willing to question modern conventions through his ancient lens.

I think it is safe to assume that Strauss' teaching can only be gleaned by reading Strauss as carefully as he reads others. By writing in that mode, Strauss seems to intentionally court misinterpretation; thus, he presumably would not be bothered by a book like Drury's, which offers a quite wild interpretation. One can of course still learn from the book, and she may hit correctly on some points, but for me the main problem is that what she is critiquing is often a caricature of her own making.

The book is not a serious philosophical engagement with Strauss' thought. Although I've only read parts of _The Truth about Leo Strauss_, it seems an infinitely better account of Strauss' thought and also deals with Drury's interpretation.
15 people found this helpful
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