In this, his most influential work, legal theorist and political philosopher Carl Schmitt presents a scathing critique of modern liberalism--a critique as cogent today as when it first appeared. George Schwab's introduction to his translation of the 1932 German edition highlights Schmitt's intellectual journey through the turbulent period of German history leading to the Hitlerian one-party state. Also included here is Leo Strauss's analysis of Schmitt's thesis and a foreward by Tracy B. Strong placing Schmitt's work into contemporary context.