Book Review

Canada and the United States

Although several books regarding the influence of the classics on the American founders have been published during the past decade, nineteenth-century American classicism has suffered comparative neglect. Caroline Winterer's superb book is a worthy start toward redressing that imbalance.

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Winterer's extensive research refutes the myth of classical decline during the antebellum period. In reality, Greek and Latin continued to dominate American grammar schools and colleges, and educated Americans continued to turn to the ancients for insight when grappling with various social and political dilemmas. Indeed, classics professors initiated a revolution in pedagogy that brought the ancients to life in the imaginations of students as never before. Drawing on new German research and teaching methods, these instructors departed from the centuries-old practice of drilling pupils in the memorization of grammatical rules, a system that had turned many students against the classics. Rather, by lecturing extensively on the history and culture of Greece and Rome, these professors managed to place the assigned classical authors squarely within the context of the societies that produced them, thereby infusing students with the "classical spirit." Furthermore, bolstered by the growth of democracy in the United States and by popular excitement over modern Greece's struggle for independence against Turkey, classical Greek finally transcended its traditional role as the neglected stepsister of Latin. New courses on the tragedies and comedies of Periclean Athens were introduced, enabling these plays to assume their rightful place alongside the Latin classics that had dominated college curricula since the Middle Ages.

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