Nicholas Xenos, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts has a new book,
Cloaked in Virtue: Unveiling Leo Strauss & the Rhetoric of American Foreign Policy. Richard Wolin writes: “For years, followers of Leo Strauss have been privately celebrating his influence on the higher echelons of the American foreign policy establishment while publicly claiming their mentor was a disinterested scholar, with little interest in contemporary politics. In
Cloaked in Virtue, Nicholas Xenos carefully reconstructs both Strausss political thought as well as its worrisome, antidemocratic policy implications, thereby dismantling the prophylactic myths that Strauss’s disciples have propagated in order to immunize the Master against all manner of critical scrutiny. The end result is an interpretive tour de force: required reading for all those who are interested in the vital nexus between politics & the history of ideas.”
(2008)