Ancient Greece and American Conservatism

Ancient Greece and American Conservatism
Author: John Bloxham
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2018-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786723948

US conservatives have repeatedly turned to classical Greece for inspiration and rhetorical power. In the 1950s they used Plato to defend moral absolutism; in the 1960s it was Aristotle as a means to develop a uniquely conservative social science; and then Thucydides helped to justify a more assertive foreign policy in the 1990s. By tracing this phenomenon and analysing these, and various other, examples of selectivity, subversion and adaptation within their broader social and political contexts, John Bloxham here employs classical thought as a prism through which to explore competing strands in American conservatism. From the early years of the Cold War to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bloxham illuminates the depth of conservatives' engagement with Greece, the singular flexibility of Greek ideas and the varied and diverse ways that Greek thought has reinforced and invigorated conservatism. This innovative work of reception studies offers a richer understanding of the American Right and is important reading for classicists, modern US historians and political scientists alike.

Ancient Greece and American Conservatism

Ancient Greece and American Conservatism
Author: John Bloxham (Classicist)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 284
Release:
Genre: Ancient philosophy
ISBN: 9781350985308

"US conservatives have repeatedly turned to classical Greece for inspiration and rhetorical power. In the 1950s they used Plato to defend moral absolutism; in the 1960s it was Aristotle as a means to develop a uniquely conservative social science; and then Thucydides helped to justify a more assertive foreign policy in the 1990s. By tracing this phenomenon and analysing these, and various other, examples of selectivity, subversion and adaptation within their broader social and political contexts, John Bloxham here employs classical thought as a prism through which to explore competing strands in American conservatism. From the early years of the Cold War to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bloxham illuminates the depth of conservatives' engagement with Greece, the singular flexibility of Greek ideas and the varied and diverse ways that Greek thought has reinforced and invigorated conservatism. This innovative work of reception studies offers a richer understanding of the American Right and is important reading for classicists, modern US historians and political scientists alike."--

Trojan Horses

Trojan Horses
Author: Page DuBois
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2001-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814769896

A passionate reexamination of the ancient world and the lessons we can draw from antiquity In today’s turbulent cultural moment, it is all too common for conservatives to invoke the wisdom of the ancient Greeks in the name of timeless virtues. At the same time, critics have charged that multiculturalists have hopelessly corrupted the study of antiquity itself, and that the teaching of Classics is dead. Trojan Horses is Page duBois's answer to scholars and theorists—such as Camille Paglia, Allan Bloom, and William Bennett—who have appropriated antiquity in the service of a conservative political agenda. She challenges cultural conservatives' appeal to the authority of the Classics by revealing their presentation of ancient Greece as simplistic, ahistorical, and irreparably distorted by their politics. In its devastating critique of these pundits, Trojan Horses presents a more complex and more accurate view of ancient Greek politics, sex, and religion. In her incisive examinations of figures such as Daedalus and Artemis, duBois eloquently conveys their complexity and passion, but also unearths actions and beliefs that do not square so easily with today's conservative values. As duBois writes, "Like Bennett, I think we should study the past, but not to find nuggets of eternal wisdom. Rather we can comprehend in our history a fuller range of human possibilities, of beginnings, of error, and of difference." In these chapters, duBois offers readers a view of the ancient Greeks that is more nuanced, more subtle, more layered and in every way more historical than the portrait many of today’s scholars strive to display in our classrooms. Sharp, timely, and engaging, Trojan Horses portrays the richness of ancient Greek culture while riding in to rescue the Greeks from the new barbarians.

Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America

Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America
Author: Michael Meckler
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2006
Genre: Civilization, Classical
ISBN: 1932792325

history and illustrates how the ancient Greeks and Romans continue to influence political theory and determine policy in the United States, from the education of the Founders to the War in Iraq.

When Worlds Elide

When Worlds Elide
Author: Karen Bassi
Publisher: Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780739122754

When Worlds Elide responds to the various incarnations of 'the Greek' legacy that continues to mark our politics, our society, and our education. It offers both an elaboration of these incarnations and a critique of how they are understood and used politically, culturally, theoretically, and pedagogically.

State Rights

State Rights
Author: Tayler Lewis
Publisher: Gale Cengage Learning
Total Pages: 112
Release: 1864
Genre: City-states
ISBN:

Alternatives to Athens

Alternatives to Athens
Author: Roger Brock
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2000-12-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0191541443

In 1993 the world celebrated the 2500th anniversary of the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, whose polis - or citizen state - is often viewed as the model ancient Greek state. In an age when democracy has apparently triumphed following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, we tend to forget that the democratic citizen-state was only one of many forms of political community in Greek antiquity. This volume, originally a seminar series at the universities of Leeds and Manchester, aims to redress the balance. Eighteen essays by established and younger historians examine alternative political systems and ideologies oligarchies, monarchies, mixed constitutions along with diverse forms of communal and regional associations such as ethnoi, amphiktyonies, and confederacies. The papers, which span the length and breadth of the Hellenic world from the Balkans and Anatolia to Magna Graecia and north Africa, highlight the immense political flexibility and diversity of ancient Greek civilization.

Democracy and Goodness

Democracy and Goodness
Author: John R. Wallach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2018-01-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108422578

Proposes a new democratic theory, rooted in activity not consent, and intrinsically related to historical understandings of power and ethics.