Over the past years, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt have become increasingly influential and controversial in the field of political theory. Scholars have hotly debated their political theories, practices, and engagements with each other''s ideas. This book provides a detailed account of the thoughtful exchange between Strauss and Schmitt, an account that should help reveal the nature of the dialogue between the two men over what politics is and clarify the peculiar features of their political teachings. Understanding the dialogue as one between a political realist and a political idealist, this book contends that whereas Schmitt has in view the distinction between real and unreal republics, Strauss has in view the contrast between existing imperfect political orders and the perfect political order constituted in speech. The analysis should especially be useful to specialists in the political thought of the twentieth century as well as to students interested in the tradition of political philosophy in general.