[publicclassics] Out now! Ancient Greece and American Conservatism: Classical Influence on the Modern Right

[J.A.Bloxham]

Dear List

I am delighted to announce a new publication by John Bloxham:

Ancient Greece and American Conservatism: Classical Influence on the Modern Right (I.B. Tauris, 2018)

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.

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1. Plato’s Ideas had Consequences: Greek Thought and the ‘New Conservatives’ 9
2. Leo Strauss and the Ancients against the Moderns 54
3. Rise of the Neoconservatives 99
4. The Classicizing of the American Mind 131
5. War and Greece 174
Epilogue 229
Notes 238
Bibliography 266
Index 280

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd.
Series: Library of Classical Studies
Hardback
ISBN: 9781788311540
Publication Date: 29 Mar 2018



Dr John Bloxham
Associate Lecturer
The Open University
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Publications and Research profile at http://open.academia.edu/JohnBloxham

Ancient Greece and American Conservatism: Classical Influence on the Modern Right, now available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancient-American-Conservatism-Library-Classical/dp/178831154X