Modern Age - Summer 2014 - 51

REVIEWS

two versions of str auss
Mark Shiffman
Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America: A Critical Appraisal
by Paul Edward Gottfried (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Leo Strauss and Anglo-American Democracy: A Conservative Critique
by Grant N. Havers (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2013)

G

rant Havers and Paul Gottfried both
reject the efforts of Straussian apologists to dissociate the master's teachings
from the democratic crusading and nationbuilding follies of the neoconservatives.
Havers and Gottfried agree that the intellectual seeds of neoconservatism were sown by
Strauss, and that Straussian thought is not
truly conservative. Says Gottfried: "American (or Anglo-American) modernity was
turned by Strauss and his disciples into the
embodiment of all that is politically virtuous
in the modern world. It became an actualized ideal that 'political Straussians' view as a
justification for an American conversionary
mission." Havers adds: "Strauss's reasons for
defending Anglo-American democracy may
actually do the cause more harm than good.
Strauss's radical rejection of History in favor
of Nature is ultimately a rejection of the
conservative tradition that is at the heart of
the civilization he is determined to protect."

Mark Shiffman is associate professor of humanities
at Villanova University, where he teaches Classics
and political theory.

While the two authors agree on these cardinal points, their accounts of the Straussian
phenomenon differ significantly. Havers
offers a monitory diatribe with clearly drawn
lines, while Gottfried crafts a more subtle
and friendly examination of the inner life
and history of Straussianism.
The portrait of Straussianism that Havers
presents is built around his two main concerns: Strauss and his followers, in their
attempt to ground modern liberal democracy
on universal principles, are antihistoricist
and thus anticonservative; and as a result,
they are compelled to obscure the centrality of Christianity for bringing about and
grounding the tradition of Anglo-American
democratic liberalism. Havers identifies the
second as his overriding concern, going so
far as to say: "If there is any secret agenda
that Strauss and his movement had, it is to
marginalize the importance of Christianity as the defining foundation of American
political thought." Relentlessly exposing the
implausibility of this obfuscation is one of
the merits of Havers's critique. Less compelling, however, is his insistence on explaining
the entire Straussian agenda in terms of what
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Modern Age - Summer 2014

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