Crisis of the Strauss Divided

Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West

By (author) Harry V. Jaffa

Publication date:

24 August 2012

Length of book:

290 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442217119

“Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the greatest mind in political philosophy in the twentieth century, and possibly in other centuries as well. That, I am well aware, is a judgment I share with very few, if any.” So writes Harry V. Jaffa in his epilogue to this volume. Including an extensive unpublished essay entitled “Straussian Geography: A Memoir and Commentary,” Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years since Strauss’s death. The volume includes arguments of those who have disagreed with Jaffa about Strauss's teaching and about the nature of political philosophy. These wide ranging exchanges explore many of the great themes of political philosophy and, in particular, the implications of Strauss's thinking for America and modern civilization.

Introduction
Preface

Chapter 1: Straussian Geography: A Memoir and Commentary
Chapter 2: Leo Strauss Remembered
Chapter 3: Political Philosophy and Honor: The Leo Strauss Dissertation Award
Chapter 4: The Legacy of Leo Strauss: Review of Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy
Chapter 5: The Platonism of Leo Strauss: A Reply to Harry Jaffa
Chapter 6: “The Legacy of Leo Strauss” Defended
Chapter 7: The Politics of Moderation: Strauss’s Esotericism
Chapter 8: Leo Strauss’s Churchillian Speech and the Question of the Decline of the West
Chapter 9: Response to M.F. Burnyeat’s “Sphinx Without a Secret,” A Review of Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy in the New York Review of Books
Chapter 10: “Dear Professor Drury”
Chapter 11: Crisis of the Strauss Divided: The Legacy Reconsidered
Chapter 12: Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
Chapter 13: A Letter to the Editor of the New York Review of Books, 1992
Chapter 14: “Relativism”
Chapter 15: Strauss at 100
Chapter 16: Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria
Chapter 17: Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
Chapter 18: Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
Chapter 19: A Reply to Michael Zuckert’s “Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety”
Chapter 20: Epilogue to Crisis of the Strauss Divided

Among Straussian publications on American politics (to say nothing of non-Straussian), none excels Harry Jaffa’s masterpiece, A New Birth of Freedom. In Crisis of the Strauss Divided, Jaffa explains to his critics why a defense of Lincoln and the Founders is, paradoxically, consistent with political philosophy — which many equate with an apolitical interpretation of Great Books. Political philosophy means nothing without a lively concern with the problems of life here and now.