Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss

Examines influence of Arendt's and Strauss' background in pre-World War II Germany on their perception of American democracy.

This book explores the influence that Hannah Arendt's and Leo Strauss' experience of inter-war Germany had on their perception of American democracy. The contributors analyse how their émigré experience both influenced their American work and also had an impact on the formation of the discipline of political science in postwar Germany.This volume on Hannah Arendt's and Leo Strauss' impact on American political science after 1933 contains essays presented at an international conference held at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991. The book explores the influence that Arendt's and Strauss' experiences of inter-war Germany had on their perception of democracy and their judgment of American liberal democracy. Although they represented different political attitudes, both thinkers interpreted the modern American political system as a response to totalitarianism. The contributors analyse how their émigré experience both influenced their American work and also had an impact on the formation of the discipline of political science in postwar Germany. Arendt's and Strauss' experiences thus aptly illustrate the transfer and transformation of political ideas in the World War II era.