In the virtual pages of Commentary's Contentions blog, Max Boot makes a fairly astonishing confession:

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I personally have never read a single book by either Trotsky or Strauss.”

With his brave show of honesty, Boot is attempting to show that not all neocons are cut from the philosophical cloth that our critics say we are, and that some of us rely on political philosophers like Alexander Hamilton and Ronald Reagan to inform our worldviews. This is a good point, and helps illustrate how words like “neocon” and “Straussian” are often used as pejoratives by people who don't have more than a vague idea of what the terms mean.

Still, Max's confession fills me with heart-ache that only a neocon could recognize. He can skip Trotsky if he's short of time, although he can borrow my dog-eared copy of The Revolution Betrayed any time. But he really must read his Strauss!

PS - Max's little essay on this matter is outstanding, as is Robert Kagan's piece from World Affairs which the essay addresses.