On Tyranny

From Book News, Inc.
Leo Strauss's critical study of Xenophon's Hiero was first published in 1948. A French edition of 1954 added a French version of the Hiero, a slightly edited version of Alexandre Kojeve's review of Strauss's study, and a "Restatement" by Strauss that briefly replies to a review by Eric Voegelin and goes on to challenge Kojeve's review point by point. A volume containing essentially the same texts appeared in English in 1964. That volume has now been revised, expanded to include the full surviving correspondence between Strauss and Kojeve, and introduced by editors Victor Gourevitch and Michael A. Roth. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Book Description
On Tyranny is Leo Strauss's classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue, Hiero or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. This edition includes a translation of the dialogue, a critique of the commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, Strauss's restatement of his position in light of Kojève's comments, and finally, the complete Strauss-Kojève correspondence.

"Through [Strauss's] interpretation Xenophon appears to us as no longer the somewhat dull and flat author we know, but as a brilliant and subtle writer, an original and profound thinker. What is more, in interpreting this forgotten dialogue, Strauss lays bare great moral and political problems that are still ours." --Alexandre Kojève, Critique

"On Tyranny is a complex and stimulating book with its 'parallel dialogue' made all the more striking since both participants take such unusual, highly provocative positions, and so force readers to face substantial problems in what are often wholly unfamiliar, even shocking ways." --Robert Pippin, History and Theory

"Every political scientist who tries to disentangle himself from the contemporary confusion over the problems of tyranny will be much indebted to this study and inevitably use it as a starting point."--Eric Voegelin, The Review of Politics

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.





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Every political scientish who tries to disentangle himself from the contemporary confusion over the problems of tyranny will be much indebted to this study and inevitably use it as a starting point.


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