From Kirchhain to Annapolis: Leo Strauss’s Intellectual Biography

BU JS Faculty/Grad Student Research Forum with Professor Thomas Meyer: Leo Strauss’s story has yet to be told. Almost forty years after his death, Strauss (1899-1973) has unquestionably become one of the most controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. Yet no comprehensive biography exists of the founder of arguably the most successful intellectual movement in the American academy. True, literature devoted to him fills proverbial libraries, “bad guy/good guy” tales about him constantly appear, and ever more complicated academic discussions of his work are followed with curiosity and bemusement by the broader public. Yet, whoever wants to understand fully what drove the last great intellectual adventurer of the previous century to provoke again, in a wholly new, radical way, the old battle of the “ancients against the moderns,” must first grasp the relationship between the broader course of historical events and Strauss’s individual development—that is, his intellectual biography. RSVP for lunch to judaics@bu.edu

When 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Building Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, 147 BSR
Room 202
Contact Name Diane Bensel
Phone 6173538096
Contact Email judaics@bu.edu
Contact Organization Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies
Fees Free
Speakers Professor Thomas Meyer