Anne Norton

While a student at the University of Chicago, Norton became acquainted with many of the followers of the philosopher Leo Strauss. In the 1990s, the rise of neoconservatism into public consciousness prompted her to write a semi-anecdotal book about the Straussians, titled Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire (Yale University Press, 2004). While some have praised the book as a thoughtful account of the intellectual origins of George W. Bush's foreign policy (including Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in the New York Review of Books, 23 September 2004), it has also received harsh criticism for its author being uninformed about her subject and for spreading mere gossip (see Stanley Hoffman, Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2004, and Charles Butterworth, Review, MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies, 2005). Emphasizing the flaws in Norton’s attempts to define Straussianism and identify Straussians, Peter Minowitz argues that her book is “disgracefully unscholarly.”

Norton's central intellectual interest has been the meaning and consequences of political identity. She has explored this theme in two books on American politics and one on the concept of political identity itself, drawing on work in the areas of anthropology and semiotics (Norton 1986, 1993, 1988). She has also written a wide-ranging critique of the current practice of the social sciences, particularly political science (Norton, 2004). In 95 Theses, Norton challenges the unreflective ways in which political scientists understand causation and time while ignoring issues of meaning and significance (Larry George, Political Theory vol. 3, no. 3, 2006). Her challenges to mainstream political science have earned her a leadership role in the Internet-based movement to reform political science that has named itself "Perestroika" (Kristen Monroe, Perestroika: The Raucous Rebellion in Political Science, Yale University Press, 2005).

Norton received her B.A. in 1977 and her Ph.D in 1982, both from The University of Chicago. She has held academic positions at University of Notre Dame, Princeton University, and The University of Texas at Austin.

Anne Norton (born 1954) is an American professor of political science and comparative literature. She is currently chair of the department of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.