At American University: Nathan Tarcov on “Leo Strauss and the Meaning of Modernity”

For its final program of the academic year, the Political Theory Institute at American University is hosting Nathan Tarcov, who will speak on “Leo Strauss and the Meaning of Modernity.”

Tarcov is Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Political Science, the Committee on International Relations, and the College at the University of Chicago. He was previously on the faculty at Harvard, on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. State Department, a Secretary of the Navy Senior Research Fellow at the Naval War College, and a Fellow at the Siemens Foundation. He has had fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Earhart Foundation. He is the author of Locke’s Education for Liberty (Chicago, 1984), translator of Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy (Chicago, 1996, with Harvey C. Mansfield), and editor of Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education and On the Conduct of Understanding (Hackett, 1996, with Ruth Grant) and The Legacy of Rousseau (Chicago, 1996, with Clifford Orwin). He has published 53 articles for scholarly journals and anthologies on a wide array of topics, including Locke, Machiavelli, the hermeneutics of Leo Strauss and Quentin Skinner, the American founding, and prudence and principle in U.S. foreign policy. Tarcov received the University of Chicago’s Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He is also the founder and director of the Leo Strauss Center at the University of Chicago. He received his BA from Cornell and his PhD from Harvard.

Parking: There are two possibilities: 1) Park in the underground lot of the Katzen Arts Center, the entrance of which is at the light on Massachusetts Ave immediately north of Ward Circle; 2) enter AU main campus from the Massachusetts Ave entrance. Go through a few stop signs and the road will dip down taking you under a building. At the stop sign at the end of the overhang, make a sharp U-turn to the right which will take you into an indoor parking lot. Both of these lots are free after 5:00 p.m.

RSVP (acceptances only) to alevine@american.edu

And feel free to pass the invitation along.