Leo Strauss

About

German-born political philosopher and author whose works touch upon metaphysics, epistemology, and Greek philosophy. His most famous critical works include Persecution and the Art of Writing, Natural Right and History, and The City and Man.

Before Fame

He served in the German Army during World War I and subsequently earned his doctorate from the University of Hamburg. He left his native Germany in the early 1930s.

Trivia

He received his U.S. citizenship in the mid-1940s and secured a political science professorship at the University of Chicago.

Family Life

He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in Kirchhain, Germany. Later, after marrying Marie Bernsohn, he adopted both her child and his own sister's child.

Associated With

Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary under George W. Bush, once studied with Strauss.