The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism - Essays and Lectures by Leo Strauss

Wonderful set of essays by Strauss on a variety of topics.

The City and Man by Leo Strauss

Three essays by Strauss on Aristotle's Politics, Plato's Republic, and Thucydides's Peloponnesian War.

Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law by John Wild

While reading Natural Right and History by Strauss, I re-read this book as a refresher on natural law. It is my favorite introduction to classical thinking on natural law. Wild has a straightforward, systematic, and plain style of writing that gets to the point and makes him a pleasure to readl.

Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss

My friend Adrian Walker recommended Strauss to me as someone I would find congenial. I was vaguely familiar with Strauss from references to him, and I fortunately took Adrian's advice. This book masterfully draws the distinctions between classical and modern thinking on natural law, identifies the true implications of the "fact-value" distinction, gives a brief but wonderful account of the origin of philosophy, probes the meaning of modern natural right and its crisis, and along the way provides insight on philosophers from Socrates to Lucretius to Hobbes, Rousseau and Edmund Burke among many others. A real treasure.