Taking the classical view that the political shapes man's consciousness, Allan Bloom considers Shakespeare as a profoundly political Renaissance dramatist. He aims to recover Shakespeare's ideas and beliefs, and to make his work once again a recognized source for the serious study of moral and political problems. In essays looking at "Julius Caesar", "Othello", and "The Merchant of Venice" Bloom shows how Shakespeare presents a picture of man that does not assume privileged access for only literary criticism. With this claim, he argues that political philosophy offers a comprehensive framework within which the which the problems of the Shakespearean heroes can be viewed. In short, he argues that Shakespeare was an eminently political author.

阿兰•布鲁姆（1930－1992）：施特劳斯的第一代传人，又在法国师从雷蒙•阿隆、亚历山大•科耶夫等。作为政治哲学教授，他的著作涉及范围很广，包括政治学、诗学和教育学等等，而且相关著作皆为经典，并且还是位非常出色的翻译家，翻译的柏拉图和卢梭的作品是英文世界中最好的译本之一。