Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America: From George Washington to George W. Bush.

• Author: Fritch, John
• Position: Book review

Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America: From George Washington to George W. Bush. Edited by Michael Meckler. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006; pp. x + 231. $29.95 paper.

American politics, education, and culture are greatly indebted to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who inspired many of the nation's greatest institutions, buildings, thinkers, and works of art. For centuries, schoolchildren were taught the speeches of Cicero, the governance of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle. Over time, the role of the classics in the educational system seemingly has waned.

Yet, vestiges remain. Classical Antiquity and the Politics of America: From George Washington to George W. Bush offers a glimpse of the role that classical thought has played, and continues to play, in the United States. Its editor, Michael Meckler, expresses the volume's ambitious goal: "Yet once the intellectual landscape of American politics is stripped to its basic topography, the importance of the ancient Greeks and Romans becomes readily apparent. The essays in this volume attempt to reveal that importance, and how it has developed and changed from the Founders to the present day" (12). The book then examines the role of classical thought in a variety of social institutions, politicians, political ideologies, and American thinkers. As with any collection, some chapters contribute more directly to this stated goal than others. Overall, however, the quality of the book is quite high. The essays are interesting and readable, and remind us of the impact of Greek and Roman thought on American history.

Scholars of argumentation and public address will find the first five chapters to be especially valuable. These chapters often discuss the importance of classical thought in the development of the American educational system. Each of the contributors argues that this system relied initially on a classical model of education. They also note the decreasing influence of classical models of education over time. Several themes here should interest scholars in argumentation and public address.

First, many of the authors discuss the importance of rhetoric and public speaking in the classically-inspired curriculum of American education. They often point to rhetoric's place in the trivium of classical liberal arts and also stress the pragmatic importance of training in public speaking. For example, in "Classical Education in Colonial America," Ziobro writes: "One of the primary...