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The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics: And Other Reflections on the Classics

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Dr. Knox dares to stand up for the ancient Greeks and their pivotal influence on Western society in this rather short collection of three essays. His message is largely a response to the modern calls from multiculturalists and "radical feminists" downplaying or even condemning the importance of the humanities in today's academic world. The overspecialization that is the inevitable product of multiculturalism sees only the faults in ancient Greek society--slavery, a limited and inferior role for women, the crudities of ritual sacrifice, an undemocratic democracy, etc.. Knox acknowledges the validity of such criticism, but he argues cogently that Greek culture and its pervading influence on the West cannot be examined solely through a narrow lens. Some modern critics have even gone so far as to label ancient Greek society a reactionary force enforcing conformity. This, as Knox explains very well, is ludicrous. The study of the classics has long been the wellspring from which innovative, radical, and even subversive new ideas emerge. Certainly, ancient Greek society was flawed in certain ways, but the fact remains that this culture bequeathed us the very foundations of our politics, philosophy, drama, rhetoric, science, etc. The very playing field upon which modern critics denigrate the influence of the ancient Greeks was essentially constructed by their long-dead opponents.

I was most impressed by Knox's analysis of the recent history of the humanities in Western culture. Until the last century, education was largely an aristocratic privilege. The Industrial Revolution set in motion a recomposition of society, one that now dwells more and more on "practical" education; it is this social metamorphosis that has done much to call into question the role of the humanities in education today. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water, Knox warns. The world we have created reflects the vast influence of the ancient Greeks, but more importantly, that influence is even still working actively to challenge modern thinkers. While we have learned a great deal from the culture of the oldest dead white Europeans, we yet have much more to learn from them. Even should the humanities and classical studies be suppressed tomorrow, their value, beauty, and utility are such that they would soon return to the forefront of intellectual and academic studies despite the wishes of modern critics.

I must say that I was disturbed by the widespread disdain for the history of "dead white guys" while immersed in my own postgraduate studies. Multiculturalism and the new social history represents a noble effort to tell the stories of men and women who have been voiceless until now, but the end result threatens to pigeon-hole and fragment academia. The study of the classics provides an education in democracy and citizenship; herein lies the secret of its eternally important influence. I rejoice in reading such an outspoken defense of the importance of the humanities, and I believe all traditionalists will admire and be inspired by the essays collected here.

Dr. Knox first presents a lively defense of the study of the ancient Greeks as an important part of a liberal arts education - there's value in the ancients if you look beyond the stereotypes. Next he defends the liberal arts education itself - again value beyond the stereotypes. Finally, he defends the modern Greeks against his fellow Classics scholars, who surprisingly have been perpetuating a stereotype about how visiting Greece is disappointing and learning modern Greek is damaging to the "ear."

All told, an entertaining read.

This is a lovely book from a fine scholar and teacher who opens the door to the "classics" and gracefully and cogently addresses some who regard the classical tradition as merely the repository of outdated unenlightened work superseded by the enlightened pomo wisdom. Much better than the fulminations of Victor David Hanson, and particularly valuable for those seeking entry into "Greek " culture which, as Knox says so well, didn't expire with Alexander or even the Byzantines. Knox must be congratulated for his honesty, his elegant writing, and his clear sighted view of both ancient and modern Greece.

Since the 1980s, it has become fashionable for the multicultural politically correct crowd to point a finger at the Great Books and say: "There goes everything that is wrong with an antifeminist, racist, hegemonic imperialism that began with the ancient Greeks and continues until this very day." Bernard Knox, in his THE OLDEST DEAD WHITE EUROPEAN MALES, exposes this canard for the sophistry that it is. In order to defend the concept of liberal humanism from those who view it through the fractured prism of relativistic thought, Knox goes back to where the very origins of western culture and democracy began--in ancient Greece. Knox does not try to hide the facts that the multiculturalists insist are wretched excesses. Nearly every text from Plato to Aristotle to Homer mentions slavery and women as chattel. But these institutions, Knox insists, existed for many centuries both before and after Homer. No other country before ancient Greece and none after it (with the exception of a few western societies of the 20th century) were as democratic as they.

Knox's training in literature is immense. Fluent in ancient Greek, though lamentably inept in modern Greek, he is well qualified to recount the glories of the legacy bequeathed by the Athenians as they sang, danced, acted, and recited from the Parthenon. Knox insists that for the moderns to appreciate this legacy, they must view the totality of the Greeks in context. Were it not for them, Knox suggests, the world as we know it now might more closely resemble a totalitarian alternate universe populated mostly by those living and ruling in countries that reject the Greek vision of the humane liberalism. What emerges from THE OLDEST DEAD WHITE EUROPEAN MALES is a sense that we owe far more to the Greeks than to the PC crowd for the liberties and rights than we might think.