Abusing Antiquity?
Classics and the Contemporary Far Right
Will be published approx. on 10. December 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-350-56372-8 (ISBN)
Description
The first ever collection of essays to explore the contemporary far right's fascination with the classical past, Abusing Antiquity? sheds new light on the ways in which ancient Greece and Rome are being used to legitimise present-day political agendas. Bringing together a diverse range of authors and case studies, the volume highlights the ways in which ideas about the classical past have been appropriated to support extremist ideologies, especially in conversations about race, gender, and immigration.
The individual chapters within the volume analyse a wide variety of national and political settings, and examine diverse forms of evidence, including memes and online media, literature, music, and modern visual and material culture, cumulatively illuminating the forms and power of such uses of antiquity. The book addresses questions of best practice, methodology and ethics when engaging with extremist material, interrogates the ways in which disciplinary structures within classical studies have at times been complicit in the production and perpetuation of politicised narratives, and considers a range of national and transnational case studies, focusing on the US and Europe. Whilst also elucidating the context behind their seductive appeal, in part by demonstrating the role of such appropriations in earlier eras, the volume in its entirety investigates the ways in which ideas about the past can be weaponised for ideological ends.
Ultimately, the volume does not seek to situate classical antiquity as "abused" or "misused" by modern extremist movements in any simplistic way, but rather offers a way to understand how such visions of antiquity have emerged and been propagated, and with what consequences.
The individual chapters within the volume analyse a wide variety of national and political settings, and examine diverse forms of evidence, including memes and online media, literature, music, and modern visual and material culture, cumulatively illuminating the forms and power of such uses of antiquity. The book addresses questions of best practice, methodology and ethics when engaging with extremist material, interrogates the ways in which disciplinary structures within classical studies have at times been complicit in the production and perpetuation of politicised narratives, and considers a range of national and transnational case studies, focusing on the US and Europe. Whilst also elucidating the context behind their seductive appeal, in part by demonstrating the role of such appropriations in earlier eras, the volume in its entirety investigates the ways in which ideas about the past can be weaponised for ideological ends.
Ultimately, the volume does not seek to situate classical antiquity as "abused" or "misused" by modern extremist movements in any simplistic way, but rather offers a way to understand how such visions of antiquity have emerged and been propagated, and with what consequences.
Reviews / Votes
This book is urgent reading for anyone interested in ideologically inflected receptions of Greco-Roman antiquity. It takes a giant methodological leap past the complacent policing of trolls to being candid about the potentially hate-fueling content of 'the Classics'. * Henry Stead, Senior Lecturer, University of St Andrews, UK *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Laminated cover
Illustrations
14 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
409 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-56372-8 (9781350563728)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Helen Roche is Associate Professor in Modern European Cultural History at the University of Durham, UK. Her key publications include The Third Reich's Elite Schools (2021), Sparta's German Children (2013), and she is co-editor of Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (2018).
Denise Eileen McCoskey is Professor of Classics and affiliate in Black World Studies at Miami University, USA. She is the author of Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2012) and editor of A Cultural History of Race in Antiquity (Bloomsbury, 2022).
Denise Eileen McCoskey is Professor of Classics and affiliate in Black World Studies at Miami University, USA. She is the author of Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2012) and editor of A Cultural History of Race in Antiquity (Bloomsbury, 2022).
Content
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
PART I: Rationales, Methods, and Disciplinary Complicities
Introduction: 'Abusing Antiquity?'
Denise Eileen McCoskey and Helen Roche
Researching Classics and the Online Far Right: Conceptual, Ethical and Methodological Reflections
Helen Roche
'The Product of Twisted Minds'? Institutional and Scholarly Reactions to White Nationalist Classicism in the United States, 2016-2021
Curtis Dozier
PART II: Considering Context: Historical Genealogies
Ku-Klux Klassix: White Supremacy and the Classical Tradition during Reconstruction
Sean Tandy and Benjamin Howland
Political Appropriations of Antiquity: Alain de Benoist, the 'Nouvelle Droite', and Antisemitic Neo-paganism
Marian Nebelin
The Gens Cornelia and Caesarism: Icons of Autocracy
Samuel Agbamu
PART III: Case Studies in Contemporary Politics
'Spartans' in Parliament: Ancient Sparta and the Greek Neo-Nazi Imaginary
Konstantinos Poulis and Helen Roche
Igniting Classical Antiquity: Prometheus and the Techno-Mythologies of the Italian Far Right
Eleftheria Ioannidou and Lorenzo Di Credico
From Eugenics to Genetics: The Role of Ancient DNA in Race Appropriations of Classical Antiquity
Denise Eileen McCoskey
PART IV: The Far Right and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Contemporary Culture
National Socialist Black Metal and the Usurpation of Greece and Rome
Jeremy Swist
What's Sparta Got to Do with It? Masculinity and Ancient Sparta in White Supremacist Spaces Online
Ricard Meisl and Stephanie Savage
'Who Are the Barbarians Now?' Tacitus' Germania in the Gender Discourse of the Far Right
Teresa Mocharitsch
Anti-Global, Global and Post-Global Classics: Reception of Homer and Classical Scholarship by the Alt-Right
Blaz Zabel
Afterword
Emily Greenwood
Suggested Further Reading
Notes on Contributors
PART I: Rationales, Methods, and Disciplinary Complicities
Introduction: 'Abusing Antiquity?'
Denise Eileen McCoskey and Helen Roche
Researching Classics and the Online Far Right: Conceptual, Ethical and Methodological Reflections
Helen Roche
'The Product of Twisted Minds'? Institutional and Scholarly Reactions to White Nationalist Classicism in the United States, 2016-2021
Curtis Dozier
PART II: Considering Context: Historical Genealogies
Ku-Klux Klassix: White Supremacy and the Classical Tradition during Reconstruction
Sean Tandy and Benjamin Howland
Political Appropriations of Antiquity: Alain de Benoist, the 'Nouvelle Droite', and Antisemitic Neo-paganism
Marian Nebelin
The Gens Cornelia and Caesarism: Icons of Autocracy
Samuel Agbamu
PART III: Case Studies in Contemporary Politics
'Spartans' in Parliament: Ancient Sparta and the Greek Neo-Nazi Imaginary
Konstantinos Poulis and Helen Roche
Igniting Classical Antiquity: Prometheus and the Techno-Mythologies of the Italian Far Right
Eleftheria Ioannidou and Lorenzo Di Credico
From Eugenics to Genetics: The Role of Ancient DNA in Race Appropriations of Classical Antiquity
Denise Eileen McCoskey
PART IV: The Far Right and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Contemporary Culture
National Socialist Black Metal and the Usurpation of Greece and Rome
Jeremy Swist
What's Sparta Got to Do with It? Masculinity and Ancient Sparta in White Supremacist Spaces Online
Ricard Meisl and Stephanie Savage
'Who Are the Barbarians Now?' Tacitus' Germania in the Gender Discourse of the Far Right
Teresa Mocharitsch
Anti-Global, Global and Post-Global Classics: Reception of Homer and Classical Scholarship by the Alt-Right
Blaz Zabel
Afterword
Emily Greenwood
Suggested Further Reading