Leo Strauss on "German Nihilism": learning the art of writing. From: Journal of the History of Ideas | Date: October 1, 2007| Author: Altman, William H.F. | COPYRIGHT 2007 University of Pennsylvania Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

In February 1941, Irwin Rommel took command of the Afrika Korps and began his daring drive on Suez. Neither the U.S.A. nor the U.S.S.R. had been added to the list of the Reich's enemies: Britain stood alone. Meanwhile, in neutral New York, an intellectual encounter between two German emigres proved likewise fateful. One of these was the former Nazi Hermann Rauschning, author of The Revolution of Nihilism: A Warning to the West. (1) The other was Leo Strauss, who offered his colleagu...