Ancient Greece and American Conservatism: Classical Influence on the Modern Right

by John A. Bloxham

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.

296 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2019

About the author

John Bloxham lives in Leicestershire with his partner and their two daughters. He has a PhD in Classics and political ideas and has taught for the Open University, the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham. His most recent research investigated the ways that ancient Greek thought has been used by the US conservative movement. For his next project he is looking at how Americans across the political spectrum viewed the Roman Empire during the interwar years. The core issues include how the development of mass-production consumerism encouraged comparisons with Roman luxury; the ways in which the Great Depression and New Deal fed and transfigured American uses of Rome as a warning about the slide from republicanism to tyranny; and Rome as a model of imperialism during the period in which the United States became a global power.