Ep. 82 - 'Western Civilization' and White Supremacy: The Right-Wing Co-option of Antiquity
Added 2019-07-10 16:40:58 +0000 UTCThe term "Western civilization" has long been a staple of the American Right, but with the recent resurgence of white nationalism, it is having something of a comeback. Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly are hosting a two-week Mediterranean "cruise thru history" to "explore the roots of Western civilization." The Intellectual Dark Web's Jordan Peterson tells us “The West is Right,” while The Daily Caller and Fox News are busy “celebrating the West." Neo-Nazi Matthew Heimbach hails “Youth for Western Civilization." Both the traditional and so-called alt-right ground their worldviews in a fictional moral arc of "The West” that bares little resemblance to reality.
Learning from the past and applying those lessons to the present is a good thing. But in pop political discourse, the Classics have been misused and abused to promote an origin story that never was - a white Greco-Roman world birthing our noble, so-called “Judeo-Christian” American empire to gloss over a history of exploitation, imperialism, slavery and conquest.
On this episode, we’ll explore the right-wing obsession with the ancient world, it’s influence on neoconservative empire-building and alt-right white nationalism alike, and how our common cultural understanding of the ancient world has been perpetually white-washed to promote a clash of civilizations narrative and racist pseudo-science.
We are joined by Dr. Sarah E. Bond, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, and Dr. Cord J. Whitaker, Associate Professor at Wellesley College.
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Guests
Dr. Sarah E. Bond is Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa. She is author of the book Trade and Taboo: Disreputable Professions in the Roman Mediterranean, a frequent contributor to Hyperallergic and principal investigator at Women in Ancient History. Follow her @SarahEBond.
Dr. Cord J. Whitaker, Associate Professor of English at Wellesley College, teaches on medieval English literature and the history of race. He is the author of the book, Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking, which will be published later this year. Follow him @ProfCWhit.
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Show Notes
Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism And Color In The Ancient World
Sarah E. Bond | April 27, 2017 | Forbes
Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color
Sarah E. Bond | June 7, 2017 | Hyperallergic
Threats for What She Didn’t Say
Colleen Flaherty | June 19, 2017 | Inside Higher Ed
Is there a ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity’ in Greco-Roman antiquity?
Rebecca Futo Kennedy | April 8, 2019 | Classics at the Intersections
Sammy Feldblum | September 21, 2018 | The Baffler
Rebecca Futo Kennedy | May 11, 2017 | Eidolon
Dan-el Padilla Peralta | February 20, 2017 | Eidolon
Game of Thrones’ Peasants are a Problem of White Supremacy—and Its Victims, too
Cord J. Whitaker | May 19, 2019 | In The Middle
The West According to Ben Shapiro
Daniel Walden | June 24, 2019 | Current Affairs
How the Far Right Perverts Ancient History—And Why It Matters
Myke Cole | March 11, 2019 | The Daily Beast
Sarah E. Bond | May 7, 2018 | Eidolon
Why the West’s far-right — and Trump supporters — are still obsessed with an ancient battle
Ishaan Tharoor | November 7, 2016 | The Washington Post
Why the White House Is Reading Greek History
Michael Crowley | June 21, 2017 | Politico
Steve Bannon’s Favorite Ancient Greeks
Alex Siquig | June 27, 2017 | GQ
The Risks and Rewards of Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
S.N. Jaffe | July 6, 2017 | War On The Rocks
Norville Morley | July 18, 2017 | Eidolon
It’s All Greek to Victor Davis Hanson
Gary Brecher | December 19, 2005 | The American Conservative
Why ‘Judeo-Christian values’ are a dog-whistle myth peddled by the far right
M J C Warren | November 7, 2017 | The Conversation
Donna Zuckerberg | October 5, 2017 | Eidolon
Zack Snyder’s 300 presaged the howling fascism of the alt-right
Tom Breihan | August 11, 2017 | AV Club
Kevin M. Schultz | May 9, 2019 | The New Republic
Daniel Walden | June 28, 2018 | Current Affairs
How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor
Donna Zuckerberg | November 21, 2016 | Eidolon
Send Me on This Voyage of the Damned
Katherine Krueger | May 17, 2019 | Splinter
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Transcript
A full transcript of this episode is available here.
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