The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910
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 GursteinWall 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. McGowanBryn 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. RichardAmerican 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. PangleJournal 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 CasazzaNew 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 StrayMouseion: Journal of Classical Association of Canada)An intelligent book about an important period.(Karl GalinskyLibraries & the Cultural Record)