Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was a German-American academic of Jewish descent who fled to the United States in 1938. His educational career began with studies at the University of Berlin, where he was taught by the great Martin Heidegger. In 1930, Strauss received his doctorate from Heidelberg University, where he had written his Habilitationsschrift. A year later he accepted a position as instructor in political science at the University of Chicago
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At Chicago, Strauss took up his most significant line of academic work, the study of ancient Greek philosophy in its relation to modern politics and politics in general. His research centered on three thinkers who were central to the history of western thought: Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. He also published works on various other Greek philosophers including Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, Democritus, Themistius , Diogenes of Apollonia , Cratylus , Plato's Parmenides , On the Sophist , Phaedrus , Theages , Menexenus , Gorgias , Meno .