The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910 / Edition 1

by Caroline Winterer

Overview

Winner of the New Scholars Book Award from the American Educational Research Association

Debates continue to rage over whether American university students should be required to master a common core of knowledge. In The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780–1910, Caroline Winterer traces the emergence of the classical model that became standard in the American curriculum in the nineteenth century and now lies at the core of contemporary controversies. By closely examining university curricula and the writings of classical scholars, Winterer demonstrates how classics was transformed from a narrow, language-based subject to a broader study of civilization, persuasively arguing that we cannot understand both the rise of the American university and modern notions of selfhood and knowledge without an appreciation for the role of classicism in their creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801878893
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/09/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	713,956
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.54(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Caroline Winterer is an assistant professor at Stanford University. She is also the author of the book, The Mirror of Antiquity: American Women and the Classical Tradition,1750-1900 (Cornell University Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Antiquity in the New Nation
Chapter 2. The Rise of Greece
Chapter 3. From Words to Worlds, 1820–1870
Chapter 4. Classical Civilization Consecrated, 1870–1910
Chapter 5. Scholarship Versus Culture, 1870–1910
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

An intelligent book about an important period.

Libraries & the Cultural Record - Karl Galinsky

The first full and sympathetic account of the changing role of classical education in pre–World War I America . . . The story told is, on the whole, one of gradual if heroically resisted extinction.

Journal of American History - Thomas L. Pangle

An intelligent book about an important period.

— Karl Galinsky

Libraries & the Cultural Record

This clearly-written and perceptive book provides the first general survey of the role of classics in the USA in the nineteenth century.

— Christopher Stray

Mouseion: Journal of Classical Association of Canada

Worthwhile reading not only for those interested in the history of the classics in American education, but also for anyone interested in the changes wrought in American education between the American Revolution and the twentieth century.

— Joseph Casazza

New England Classical Journal

The first full and sympathetic account of the changing role of classical education in pre–World War I America... The story told is, on the whole, one of gradual if heroically resisted extinction.

— Thomas L. Pangle

Journal of American History

Richly informative yet concise and lucid, this book is filled with interesting insight... It is, without question, one of the greatest contributions to [the field of classics in nineteenth-century America] yet published.

— Carl J. Richard

American Historical Review

This book makes, in particular, two significant contributions to the field: it expands the scope of inquiry beyond the opening decades of the nation's history, where scholarly interest has tended to concentrate; and it shifts the focus from what has become familiar (the classicism of the founding fathers and the influence of nineteenth-century German scholarship) to what is less well-known... Winterer's prose moves swiftly and with punch, and she displays an easy familiarity with her subject matter.

— Matthew M. McGowan

Bryn Mawr Classical Review

A conscientious and important history of the study of classicism in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries... Ms. Winterer sheds light on the virtual disappearance of the ancients from the modern imagination.

— Rochelle Gurstein

Wall Street Journal

Winterer (history, San Jose U.) traces Americans' enthusiasm for ancient Greeks and Romans, from the time of the first European settlements to the era of the Civil war; and she discusses how they embedded their version of classicism in ethics, politics, oration, art, and education. She also tells how the aesthetic retreated in the late 19th century to elite niches, where it survives a century later. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A conscientious and important history of the study of classicism in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . . . Ms. Winterer sheds light on the virtual disappearance of the ancients from the modern imagination.
—Rochelle Gurstein, Wall Street Journal

This book makes, in particular, two significant contributions to the field: it expands the scope of inquiry beyond the opening decades of the nation's history, where scholarly interest has tended to concentrate; and it shifts the focus from what has become familiar (the classicism of the founding fathers and the influence of nineteenth-century German scholarship) to what is less well-known . . . Winterer's prose moves swiftly and with punch, and she displays an easy familiarity with her subject matter.
—Matthew M. McGowan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Richly informative yet concise and lucid, this book is filled with interesting insight . . . It is, without question, one of the greatest contributions to [the field of classics in nineteenth-century America] yet published.
—Carl J. Richard, American Historical Review

The first full and sympathetic account of the changing role of classical education in pre–World War I America . . . The story told is, on the whole, one of gradual if heroically resisted extinction.
—Thomas L. Pangle, Journal of American History

Worthwhile reading not only for those interested in the history of the classics in American education, but also for anyone interested in the changes wrought in American education between the American Revolution and the twentieth century.
—Joseph Casazza, New England Classical Journal

This clearly-written and perceptive book provides the first general survey of the role of classics in the USA in the nineteenth century.
—Christopher Stray, Mouseion: Journal of Classical Association of Canada

An intelligent book about an important period.
—Karl Galinsky, Libraries & the Cultural Record

From the Publisher

This book makes, in particular, two significant contributions to the field: it expands the scope of inquiry beyond the opening decades of the nation's history, where scholarly interest has tended to concentrate; and it shifts the focus from what has become familiar (the classicism of the founding fathers and the influence of nineteenth-century German scholarship) to what is less well-known . . . Winterer's prose moves swiftly and with punch, and she displays an easy familiarity with her subject matter.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review - Matthew M. McGowan

Richly informative yet concise and lucid, this book is filled with interesting insight . . . It is, without question, one of the greatest contributions to [the field of classics in nineteenth-century America] yet published.

American Historical Review - Carl J. Richard

A conscientious and important history of the study of classicism in America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . . . Ms. Winterer sheds light on the virtual disappearance of the ancients from the modern imagination.

Wall Street Journal - Rochelle Gurstein

Worthwhile reading not only for those interested in the history of the classics in American education, but also for anyone interested in the changes wrought in American education between the American Revolution and the twentieth century.

New England Classical Journal - Joseph Casazza

This clearly-written and perceptive book provides the first general survey of the role of classics in the USA in the nineteenth century.

Mouseion: Journal of Classical Association of Canada - Christopher Stray