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LEO STRAUSS WAS THE GREATEST WRITER OF EPIC POLITICAL THEORY IN OUR CENTURY. YET WHAT HE WAS SAYING, WHAT HE WAS DOING BY SAYING WHAT HE SAID, AND WHAT HE HOPED TO ACCOMPLISH REMAIN OPEN ISSUES. IF THERE IS A SINGLE THEME THAT GIVES COHERENCY TO HIS WORK, IT IS HIS ACCOUNT OF THE DECLINE OF THE TRADITION OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND THE ENTAILED CRISIS OF THE WEST THAT IS MANIFEST IN THE CRISIS OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY. TO UNDERSTAND STRAUSS REQUIRES LOCATING HIS WORK WITHIN THE LITERARY GENRE TO WHICH THAT ACCOUNT BELONGS, BUT THIS IS COMPLICATED BY THE FACT THAT STRAUSS WAS ONE OF THE CREATORS OF THAT GENRE. FURTHERMORE, THE FORM OF DISCOURSE THAT CHARACTERIZES THIS LITERATURE IS FAR FROM EXPLICIT. IT CANNOT BE CATEGORIZED AS HISTORICAL, EXEGETICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, OR POLITICAL, EVEN THOUGH IT MAY EMPLOY OR PARTAKE OF EACH. THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT STRAUSS'S WORK CAN BEST BE UNDERSTOOD AS RHETORICAL, AND THAT IT SHOULD BE APPROACHED AS AN EXAMPLE OF POLITICAL THEORY AS EVOCATION. AS SUCH, IT RAISES, AT LEAST BY IMPLICATION, QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONDITIONS AND LIMITS OF ACADEMIC POLITICAL THEORY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO POLITICS. ALTHOUGH THESE QUESTIONS WERE VIVID FOR STRAUSS, THEY HAVE BECOME OBSCURE WITHIN THE CONTEMPORARY ENTERPRISE OF POLITICAL THEORY.

RECENT CHALLENGES TO TRADITIONAL APPROACHES AND PURPOSES FOR STUDYING THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THEORY HAVE RAISED QUESTIONS ABOUT ITS CONSTITUTION AS BOTH SUBJECT MATTER AND SUBFIELD OF POLITICAL SCIENCE. METHODOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS ADVOCATING WHAT IS CHARACTERIZED AS A MORE TRULY HISTORICAL MODE OF INQUIRY FOR UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL IDEAS AND RECOVERING TEXTUAL MEANING HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY POPULAR. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THESE HERMENEUTICAL CLAIMS ABOUT HISTORICITY, SUCH AS THAT ADVANCED BY QUENTIN SKINNER, TO THE ACTUAL PRACTICE OF INTERPRETATION IS PROBLEMATICAL. SUCH CLAIMS ARE MORE A DEFENSE OF A CERTAIN FORM OF HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION THAN A METHOD OF INTERPRETATION, AND THE IMPHEATIONS OF THIS FORM FOR THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THEORY REQUIRE CAREFUL CONSIDERATION.