On Tyranny

Corrected and Expanded Edition, Including the Strauss-Kojeve Correspondence

Strauss Leo

"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. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss's commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojeve, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss's restatement of his position in light of Kojeve's commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.

About the Author

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. He is the author of many books, among them "The Political Philosophy of Hobbes", "Natural Right and History", "and Spinoza's Critique of Religion", all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

"'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

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