Thinking Founding Moments with Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin

Contemporary political theory has lost sight of founding moments by recasting the problem as illustrative of the more general creativity of politics. This book sets out to re-find founding moments by way of a dialogue between Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin. Bound by its beginning in the practical experience of citizens and its end in the theoretical articulation of political life, the dialogue relocates founding moments as a problem of understanding; namely, a founding moment is the result of the effort made to understand it. Since understanding proceeds dialectically, the account of founding moments that are understood must be something other than a faithful retelling of historical events. This book explores both how and why a founding moment that can be understood displaces the historical event it relates to and also examines the relationship that the founding moment retains to that historical event.