Exile and the Demos: Leo Strauss in America |
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Authors: | Tracy B Strong |
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Institution: | Department of Political Science, University of California at San Diego, University of Southampton, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. |
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Abstract: | This article explores the political, as opposed to the philosophical, impact of Leo Strauss’s exile in America on his thought. After a consideration of anti-Semitism and the importance Strauss attached to being a Jew, I argue that the fact that in America he no longer wrote in his Muttersprache but in English was central to his becoming a political theorist rather than a philosopher. Whereas as a philosopher he was unable to speak to the demos, as a political theorist what he needed was a group of “rhetors” who would carry a particular message to the demos. |
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