Abstract
Do you remember when awareness and suspicion of"Straussians"" were confined to the few political scientistsor, perhaps, historians or classicists who had an interest inlimiting the influence of Strauss's teachings in their academicdepartments, when we who respect Strauss's writings would neverexpect a person with no stake in these academic squabbles even torecognize his name, much less have any reason to look askew at apossible ""disciple""? Those days seem long ago now, as thequestion of Strauss's dark designs has been linked in a certaineducated public's mind with that of the fearsome""neoconservatives,"" and through them, more specifically, to thepresent Bush administration and its foreign policy. Perhaps thispolitical phase of the Straussian controversy will soon pass, andwe alleged ""Straussians"" will be able return to losing nobly in ourfamiliar academic turf wars. Or perhaps the question of Strauss'spolitical influence will last as long as the questions surroundingthe Iraq war; perhaps future generations will revive it as we revivedebates about Vietnam, or, say, the causes of World War I.
