Revolt Against Modernity: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, And The Search For A Postliberal Order

Revolt Against Modernity: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, and the Search for a Postliberal Order

Review "A thoughtful book . . . maps out some of the more obscure and neglected territory in twentieth-century intellectual." -- Reviews in American History"McAllister has performed a real service in delineating so clearly the civic dimensions of Strauss's and Voegelin's thought." -- Washington Times Provides the first comparison of the thought of these two political philosophers and its influence on contemporary American conservatism. Since the appearance in 1950 of Strauss's Natural Right and History and Voegelin's Order and History , conservatives have frequently turned to these thinkers to support their attacks on liberalism and the modernist mind set. McAllister's (history, Vanderbilt U.) reevaluation reveals the social, historical, political, and philosophical foundations of their work and decodes their frequently opaque or esoteric thinking. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or. From the Back Cover "McAllister traces an American counter-tradition in the work of thinkers for whom modernity was as much tragedy as triumph. An important contribution to our self-understanding as well as to the history of ideas."--Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Democracy on Trial"A lively, nuanced, and insightful account of the two contemporary giants of political philosophy. Warmly recommended."--Ellis Sandoz, Director, Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies and editor of Eric Voegelin's Significance for the Modern Mind"A beautifully written book that lucidly examines the major works of Strauss and Voegelin for an understanding of the origins and nature of our modern predicament. It is 'must' reading for an appreciation of the theoretical foundations of modern American conservative thought which, as McAllister makes clear, owes so much to these two giants."--George W. Carey, editor of The Political Science Reviewer"This book is fair and thoughtful. There is no ideological distortion in McAllister's readings; he illuminates rather than obscures."--Stanley Rosen, author of The Ancients and the Moderns: Rethinking Modernity"A lucid and powerful account."--Kenneth L. Deutsch, coeditor of Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker and The Crisis of Liberal Democracy