In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States for his first term, and the conservative revolution that was slowly developing in the United States finally emerged in full-throated roar. Who provoked the conservative revolution? Shadia Drury provides a fascinating answer to the question as she looks at the work of Leo Strauss, a seemingly reclusive German Jewish emigré and scholar who was one of the most influential individuals in the conservative movement, a man widely seen as the godfather of the Republican party’s failed "Contract With America." Among his students were individuals such as Alan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind. Strauss influenced the work of Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb and William Kristol, as well as Chief Justice Clarence Thomas and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Drury delves deeply into Strauss’s work at the University of Chicago where he taught his students that, if they truly loved America, they must save her from her fateful enchantment with liberalism. Leo Strauss and the American Right is a fascinating piece of work that anyone interested in understanding our current political situation will want to read.

Shadia B. Drury is a professor of politics at the University of Calgary in Canada. She is the author ofThe Political Ideas of Leo Strauss andAlexandre Kojeve: The Roots of Postmodern Politics. She lives in Calgary.

“Her evidence is persuasive, and her research is impeccable . . . investigates how Strauss formed his ideology and what events, such as the Holocaust, may have shaped his views.” —Publishers Weekly

“...the work of political scientist Shadia Drury (University of Calgary) is essential for readers who are particularly interested in the political usage of religion in modernity and postmodernity.” —Studies in Religion