THIS is not the book to read if you wish to learn about Leo Strauss, one of the 20th century's great students of the history of political philosophy, or about his influence on the shape of neoconservatism and thereby on the Bush administration's transformation of American foreign policy in response to the 9/11 attacks. Yet Norton's book — chock full of factual errors, personal smears and fatuous assertions — is valuable for what it tells you about the debasement of intellectual standards at our leading universities. Before page 20 in this peer-reviewed and Yale-editorial-board-approved book, one encounters numerous mistakes. Some...