Books

Leo Strauss on Moses Mendelssohn

– Leo Strauss on Moses Mendelssohn, translated and edited by Martin D. Yaffe, University of Chicago Press, 2012.
From the publisher: Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86) was the leading Jewish thinker of the German Enlightenment and the founder of modern Jewish philosophy. His writings, especially his attempt during the Pantheism Controversy to defend the philosophical… More

The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism

– The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism: An Introduction to the Thought of Leo Strauss, Thomas L. Pangle, ed., University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Excerpt: Humanism is today understood in contradistinction to science, on the one hand, and to the civic art, on the other.  It is thus suggested to us that the social sciences are shaped by science, the civic art, and humanism, or that the social sciences… More

Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy

– Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, University of Chicago Press, 1983.  Reprint: University of Chicago, 1986.
Whoever is concerned with political philosophy must face the fact that in the last two generations political philosophy has lost its credibility.  Political philosophy has lost its credibility in proportion as politics itself has become more philosophic than… More

The Argument and the Action of Plato’s Laws

– The Argument and the Action of Plato's Laws, University of Chicago Press, 1975.  Reprint: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Excerpt: In the traditional order of the Platonic dialogues the Laws is preceded by the Minos, the only Platonic dialogue in which Socrates raises the question What is law?  It appears that not all laws are good or, at any rate equally good.  The Cretan… More

Xenophon’s Socrates

– Xenophon's Socrates, Cornell University Press, 1972.  Reprint: St. Augustine's Press, 1998.
Excerpt: The title Apomnemoneumata may be rendered provisionally by “Recollections.” Apomnemoneuein (or derivatives) occurs only once within the Memorabilia (I.2.31); there it means “resenting,” “remembering one’s… More

Xenophon’s Socratic Discourse

– Xenophon's Socratic Discourse: An Interpretation of the Oeconomicus, Cornell University Press, 1970.  Reprint: St. Augustine's Press, 1998.
Excerpt: The Great Tradition of political philosophy was originated by Socrates. Socrates is said to have disregarded the whole of nature altogether in order to devote himself entirely to the study of ethical things. His reason seems to have been that while… More

Liberalism Ancient and Modern

– Liberalism Ancient and Modern, Basic Books, 1968.  Reprint: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Excerpt: Liberal education is education in culture or toward culture.  The finished product of a liberal education is a cultured human being.  “Culture” (cultura) means primarily agriculture: the cultivation of the soil and its products, taking… More

Socrates and Aristophanes

– Socrates and Aristophanes, Basic Books, 1966.  Reprint: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Excerpt: Since Socrates did not write books or speeches, we depend entirely on other men’s reports for our knowledge of the circumstances in which, or of the reasons for which, political philosophy was founded.  The difficulty is increased by the fact… More
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Essays

Leo Strauss on Modern Political Science

– Svetozar Minkov and Rasoul Namazi eds., "Leo Strauss on Modern Political Science: TwoPreviously Unpublished Manuscripts," Review of Politics, 79, 2017.b
Two previously unpublished lectures by Leo Strauss on modern political science, the first delivered in 1956, the second between 1957-1962.

Restatement

– "Restatement," Interpretation, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Fall 2008).  Reprinted in On Tyranny: An Interpretation of Xenophon's Hiero, Including the Strauss-Kojeve Correspondence, Victor Gourevitch and Michael S. Roth, eds., University of Chicago Press, 1961, reprinted 1991, 2000.  
Excerpt: A social science that cannot speak of tyranny with the same confidence with which medicine speaks, for example, of cancer, cannot understand social phenomena as what they are.  It is therefore not scientific.  Present day social science finds… More

Die Religionskritik des Hobbes

– "Die Religionskritik des Hobbes: Ein Beitrag zum verstandnis der Aufklarung," Gesammelte Schriften: Band 3, Heinrich Meier, ed., 2008.
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Multimedia

Ancients and Moderns: Did Leo Strauss Exaggerate the Break?

– "Ancients and Moderns: Did Leo Strauss Exaggerate the Break?," A Faculty Roundtable, featuring Leo Paul de Alvarez, Jonathan Culp, Richard Dougherty, Tiffany Jones Miller, and Thomas G. West, University of Dallas, February 22, 2012.

Leo Strauss on Liberal Education

– Nathan Tarcov, "Leo Strauss on Liberal Education" University of Chicago, 2011.
Nathan Tarcov of the University of Chicago discusses Strauss’s 1959 lecture “What is Liberal Education?”

Leo Strauss as Teacher

– "Leo Strauss as Teacher," Conference hosted by the Leo Strauss Center at the University of Chicago, April 22-23, 2011.
Panel discussions with: Nathan Tarcov – University of Chicago Ralph Lerner – University of Chicago Victor Gourevitch – Wesleyan University Hilail Gildin – Queens College, City University of New York Robert Faulkner – Boston… More

Leo Strauss as a Jewish Thinker

– Steven Smith, "Leo Strauss as a Jewish Thinker," Yale University, February 14, 2008.
Steven Smith of Yale University lectures on Leo Strauss as Jewish Thinker.

Audio of Courses Taught by Leo Strauss

– Audio of courses taught by Leo Strauss, 1958 - 1973, provided by the Leo Strauss Center at the University of Chicago.
Courses include: Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, Cicero, Vico, Grotius, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche,  Relativism