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Book Review: Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism1 6 3Corine Pelluchon, Leo Strauss and the Crisis of Rationalism: Another Reason,Another Enlightenment. Translated by Robert Howse. SUNY Series in theThought and Legacy of Leo Strauss. New York: State University of New YorkPress, 2014, 309 pp., $90 (hardcover).St e v e n F r a n k e lXavier Universityfrankel@xavier.eduRobert Howse’s translation of Corine Pelluchon’s ambitious book marksanother impressive addition to the fine series from SUNY Press on thethought and legacy of Leo Strauss. Pelluchon’s book originally appeared inFrance in 2005 (Éditions Vrin), winning the prestigious François Furet prizein 2006. The book’s enthusiastic reception in France reflects Pelluchon’ssuccess at introducing Strauss to a European audience and reclaiming himas a seminal European thinker. Nonetheless, she does not wish merely topresent Strauss as a European “raised in Germany, [who] studied in Parisand Cambridge,” but insists on the continuing relevance of Strauss’s thoughtto contemporary readers, particularly his analysis of the crisis of the West:“Strauss provides strikingly new perspectives with a view to thinkingthrough the crisis of our times” (3). The crisis is the loss of confidence in allclaims about the good, including those grounded in reason, revelation, andliberalism. Ultimately, she argues, this crisis is rooted in the Enlightenment’sconception of reason and, as Strauss gradually came to see, involves the theologyand politics derived from it. Strauss remains relevant because the crisiswas never resolved in Europe. The status of the Jews in Europe, for example,was hardly resolved by the annihilation of European Jewry. Pelluchon’s bookclaims Strauss not only as a European, but also as a guide who can showEuropeans out of their theological-political cul-de-sac.© 2015 Interpretation, Inc.