Trojan Horses: Saving the Classics from Conservatives [Hardcover]

Page DuBois (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

We've become accustomed to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks being trotted out by conservatives in the name of timeless virtues. At the same time, critics have charged that multiculturalists and their ilk have hopelessly corrupted the study of antiquity itself, and that the teaching of Classics is dead.

Trojan Horses is Page duBois's answer to those who have appropriated material from antiquity in the service of a conservative political agendaamong them, Camille Paglia, Allan Bloom, and William Bennett. She challenges cultural conservatives' appeal to the authority of the classics by arguing that their presentation of ancient Greece is simplistic, ahistorical, and irreparably distorted by their politics. As well as constructing a devastating critique of these pundits, Trojan Horses seeks to present a more complex and more accurate view of ancient Greek politics, sex, and religion, with a Classics primer. She eloquently recounts the tales of Daedalus and Artemis, for example, conveying their complexity and passion, while also unearthing actions and beliefs that do not square so easily with today's "family values." As duBois writes, "Like Bennett, I think we should study the past, but not to find nuggets of eternal wisdom. Rather we can comprehend in our history a fuller range of human possibilities, of beginnings, of error, and of difference."

In these fleet chapters, duBois offers readers a view of the ancient Greeks that is more nuanced, more subtle, more layered and in every way more historical than the portrait other writers, of whatever stripe, want to popularize and see displayed in our classrooms. Sharp, timely, and engaging, Trojan Horses portrays the richness of ancient Greek culture while riding in to rescue the Greeks from the new barbarians.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

DuBois (a professor of classics at UC-San Diego and author of Sappho Is Burning) proffers a highly polemical attack on what she believes are ill-founded attempts by conservatives to use the literature, history and mythology of Greco-Roman antiquity to advance their moral agendas. Some of her targets are well known, like William Bennett (the book's main villain) and Allan Bloom; others will be familiar primarily to those who follow academic discourse. The arguments against the offending conservatives are many, but the book's major target is the claim that there are enduring moral and political lessons to be learned from ancient wisdom that we can use to improve our own society. DuBois disputes these conclusions by arguing that those with whom she has issue distort through simplification the context and meaning of much of their evidence evidence that is open to a more nuanced and sophisticated interpretation. The book concentrates on evidence from " the sexual practices of the classical period in Athens, the radical democracy of ancient Athens and the polytheism of the ancient Greeks." The author argues that, when looked at in detail, the ancient wisdom used by conservatives is culled from a brutish, warlike and sexist culture that offers little of the ethical comfort to the modern world that conservatives claim. (Mar.)Forecast: Despite the heat of the cultural debate, duBois's scholarly text may generate some controversy but it is not likely to be read outside the academy.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

DuBois (Sappho Is Burning; classics, Univ. of California, San Diego) begins by noting the simplistic view of ancient myth and culture found in popular culture. She shifts, however, to the equally simplistic way that conservative thinkers, such as William Bennett and Allan Bloom, posit that the classics are a repository of perennial wisdom. She then outlines the complexity of ancient views on race, sexuality, gender, and community. While she is accurate in both her thesis and her response, her complaints about the reductive appropriation of ancient Greek and Roman culture are hardly new. Further, her targets are no longer as prominent on the contemporary cultural radar, dating her book. She would have done better to examine the simplistic view of the ancients in popular culture than to throw barbs at straw men. Aimed at the converted, this book is more a tempest in a teacup than a Trojan horse. Not recommended. T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814719465
• ISBN-13: 978-0814719466
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,152,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dude, where's my text?, June 20, 2002

By 

Wallace Stevens - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trojan Horses: Saving the Classics from Conservatives (Hardcover)

Beautiful-looking book. Nice broad margins, nice clear font. Nice narrow lines, and not too many of them. Not too many pages, either...

Wait a minute. I estimate 250-300 words per page x 140 pages. That's something like 40,000 words, tops. Put 12 words on a line and 36 lines on a page (neither of which would be at all unusual) and this book would stretch to all of 90 pages!

I know how important it is for academics to publish, but in this case I really think Page Dubois should have held back - maybe until she'd written a whole book.

14 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing to see here, and P.S., Mr. Bloom, he dead, June 29, 2001

By 

Gabrielle S. Hon "gabby" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trojan Horses: Saving the Classics from Conservatives (Hardcover)

Although we are given to believe that DuBois is mightily upset over those darn conservatives and their dastardly plans (plans which she is both oddly reluctant to describe and/or believes her readers already know about - bad call) for the Classics, by the end of this book, the reader wonders what the fuss is all about. I learned nothing in this book that was either shocking or a surprise. The Greeks enjoyed man-boy love? Women didn't have the same rights as men? (Yet DuBois patently ignores the broad power they held in the domestic arena, which is inexcusable and anti-woman.) Sappho liked women? I already knew all of this through reading the source texts. Finally, DuBois looks absurd through her assertion that Allan Bloom and William Bennett are threats to the Classics or Western Culture. The works she cites are up to 14 years old and nearly forgotten. Much as _Trojan Horses_ will be.

6 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classical Alternatives, June 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Trojan Horses: Saving the Classics from Conservatives (Hardcover)

This book is crucial reading for anyone interested in the political uses of the classics and their enduring relevance to the present. In marked contrast to recent conservative treatments of the classical world, DuBois restores antiquity to its challenging strangeness, its enduring multiplicity of meanings. Filled with fascinating and often unsettling mythical examples, powerfully and clearly written, this book brings the classics back to life. It will be of interest to anyone interested in classical mythology, and/or the contemporary culture wars.