The figure of Julius Caesar has loomed large in the United States since its very beginning, admired and evoked as a gateway to knowledge of politics, war, and even national life. In this lively and perceptive book, the first to examine Caesar's place in modern American culture, Maria Wyke investigates how his use has intensified in periods of political crisis, when the occurrence of assassination, war, dictatorship, totalitarianism or empire appears to give him fresh relevance. Her fascinating discussion shows how—from the Latin classroom to the Shakespearean stage, from cinema, television and the comic book to the internet—Caesar is mobilized in the U.S. as a resource for acculturation into the American present, as a prediction of America’s future, or as a mode of commercial profit and great entertainment.
Maria Wyke is Professor of Latin at University College London.
Maria Wyke's Caesar in the USA is the first comprehensive account of the Roman warrior and dictator's profound impact on the history of the United States, both as an author whose works were studied widely in American schools and as a perpetual national villain charged with having overthrown the world's most celebrated republic, the chief model for the United States Constitution. Concise, lucid, solidly researched, and often fascinating, this book is a tremendous achievement.—Carl J. Richard, author of Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World
320 pp.6 x 9Illus: 37 b/w photographs
9780520273917$39.95|£34.00Hardcover
Nov 2012