A question that my recent comments (and those of my good friend Claes Ryn) pertaining to Strauss and the Straussians continue to elicit is whether some distinctions may be in order between Strauss and his disciples or between generic Straussians and their Claremont cousins. The Jaffaites have trailed their Straussian cousins in showing enthusiasm for... Read More

Professor Havers's defense of Leo Strauss against his historicist critics offers considerable food for thought. Although Havers says nothing here that has not already been aired, his words are sufficiently provocative to warrant examination. We are told that Strauss's conservative, historically-minded critics, particularly Claes Ryn and myself, have been unfair to him on several counts,... Read More

Having received a note from an inquiring graduate student, Mitch, who is "banging out a Master's thesis," and cannot comprehend why I have insisted that Straussians and paleos are irreconcilably divided, I wish to offer the following friendly clarification. At the very least my explanation may be help to relieve the "cognitive dissonance" that Mitch... Read More

Reading the exchange between Harry Jaffa and Joe Sobran and the incisive commentary by David Gordon brought home the specifically Straussian silliness of Jaffa's portrait of Lincoln. Aside from the constitutional questions raised in this debate, there is a persistent methodological problem with Jaffa's argument, which should raise the hackles of a serious historian. Why,... Read More