18 May 2003

Leo Strauss' influence in Washington

Here is an article from saturday's National Post: "Philosopher King," Jeet Heer's account of the impact the disciples of the late Leo Strauss are having on particularly the Bush administration in the US. His influence is felt here in Canada as well:

As David Frum has noted in National Review Online, Strauss's student Allan Bloom led a large-scale migration to Canada. After facing machine-gun-carrying Black Panthers at Cornell, in 1970 Bloom headed for the University of Toronto. He was soon followed by such Straussians as Walter Berns, Clifford Orwin, Thomas Pangle and even George F. Will. While Bloom returned to the United States in 1979, he left behind a network of Straussians that is now ensconced at every major university in Canada. Intellectuals influenced by Strauss, notably Ted Morton of the University of Calgary, have been a formative influence on the Canadian Alliance party.


What Heer does not mention is that the late George Parkin Grant (1918-1988) counted Strauss as an influence as well, along with Jacques Ellul and Simone Weil.

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