Abusing Antiquity?

Classics and the Contemporary Far Right

Helen Roche, Denise Eileen McCoskey

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Edition: 1
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350563735
• Index: History

The first ever collection of essays to explore the contemporary far right's fascination with the classical past, Abusing Antiquity? sheds new light on the ways in which ancient Greece and Rome are being used to legitimize political agendas in the present. Through analyses from contemporary Europe and the United States, the volume examines how historical figures, images, events and texts connected with the classical world have been mobilized by the far right to promote extremist views related to race, gender and immigration.

From the rise of mid-20th-century fascism to the modern day, the individual chapters examine evidence ranging from memes and online media to literature, music and visual and material culture. The volume addresses questions of best practice, methodology and ethics, while providing historical context for the far right's use of classics, and interrogating how the structures within classical studies itself can provide support for far-right ideologies. Rather than situating classical antiquity as simplistically 'abused' by modern extremist movements, this volume traces Classics' implication and its appropriations in the recent rise of the far-right, thus contributing to more effective methods of countering extremism.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• CONTENTS
• FIGURES
• CONTRIBUTORS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PART I RATIONALES, METHODS AND DISCIPLINARY COMPLICITIES
• INTRODUCTION: ‘ABUSING ANTIQUITY?’
• RESEARCHING CLASSICS AND THE ONLINE FAR RIGHT:1 CONCEPTUAL, ETHICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS
• ‘THE PRODUCT OF TWISTED MINDS’? INSTITUTIONAL AND SCHOLARLY REACTIONS TO WHITE NATIONALIST CLASSICISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 2016–211
• PART II CONSIDERING CONTEXT: HISTORICAL GENEALOGIES
• KU-KLUX KLASSIX: WHITE SUPREMACY AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION DURING RECONSTRUCTION1
• POLITICAL APPROPRIATIONS OF ANTIQUITY: ALAIN DE BENOIST, THE ‘NOUVELLE DROITE’ AND ANTISEMITIC NEO-PAGANISM
• THE GENS CORNELIA AND CAESARISM: ICONS OF AUTOCRACY
• PART III CASE STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICS
• ‘SPARTANS’ IN PARLIAMENT: ANCIENT SPARTA AND THE GREEK NEO-NAZI IMAGINARY
• IGNITING CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY: PROMETHEUS AND THE TECHNO-MYTHOLOGIES OF THE ITALIAN FAR RIGHT
• FROM EUGENICS TO GENETICS: ANCIENT DNA AND THE RETURN OF RACE SCIENCE1
• PART IV THE FAR RIGHT AND GRAECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
• NATIONAL SOCIALIST BLACK METAL AND THE USURPATION OF GREECE AND ROME
• WHAT’S SPARTA GOT TO DO WITH IT? MASCULINITY AND ANCIENT SPARTA IN WHITE SUPREMACIST SPACES ONLINE1
• ‘WHO ARE THE BARBARIANS NOW?’ TACITUS’ GERMANIA IN THE GENDER DISCOURSE OF THE FAR RIGHT
• ANTI-GLOBAL, GLOBAL AND POST-GLOBAL CLASSICS: RECEPTION OF HOMER AND CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP BY THE ALT-RIGHT
• AFTERWORD
• NOTES
• SUGGESTED FURTHER READING
• INDEX