Norton's central intellectual interest has been the meaning and consequences of political identity.
While a student at the University of Chicago, Norton became acquainted with many of the followers of the philosopher Leo Strauss.
[citation needed] 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 Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. has praised the book as a thoughtful account of the intellectual origins of George W. Bush's foreign policy,[1] others like Stanley Hoffman and Charles Butterworth have criticized the author as uninformed.
[2][3] Peter Minowitz has argued that there are flaws in Norton’s attempts to define Straussianism and identify Straussians, calling her book “disgracefully unscholarly.”[4] In a lawsuit filed against the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, it was alleged that Norton disseminated blatant antisemitism through her social media platforms, including liking a tweet that stated “Playing the victim is what Jews are best at.”[5]