Are any of the chapters beyond the titular chapter which comment on specific texts worth reading without having read those texts beforehand?

Any further recs for esoteric reading?

>>24540790 (OP)
The Maimonides and Spinoza chapters are still interesting in themselves as examples of the kind of writing from the opening essay, even if you only know vaguely who either are.

His essays, On A Forgotten Kind of Writing and Exoteric Teaching are both good, and take up the issue from different vantage points than in Persecution. There's also Arthur Melzer's book, which may already be familiar with.

For stuff independent of Strauss, look up John Toland's dialogue Clidophorus on the subject, or David Berman's Deism, Immortality, and the Art of Theological Lying (contained in Deism, Masonry,
and the Enlightenment: Essays Honoring Aldred Owen Aldridge), and Han Baltussen's The Art of Veiled Speech.

>>24540790 (OP)
The Spinoza one is worth reading source material for. Otherwise it may be worth your effort but depending on your own beliefs it may not be necessary. >>24540905 mentioned Melzer which is a good choice, especially for the shift from esoteric to conspiratorial. Around 90% of esoteric political material is garbage, the remaining 10% engage with classics so unless the author has classic source material that you're also familiar with then it may not be worth the effort. Nietzsche is also a must read regardless of your opinions on him.