I’ve been a fan of Dr. Curtis Dozier for a while. I stumbled on his podcast, The Mirror of Antiquity, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then came across his website, Pharos, where he chronicles (mostly horrible and some who are only somewhat horrible but still horrible) people invoking the Classics to justify their horrible beliefs. When I reached out to Dr. Dozier to see if he would come on the podcast, not only did he say yes, but he told me about his current book which is now available for purchase – The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate. Naturally, this book which is now available for purchase, is the topic of the episode.
In Dr. Dozier’s book, which I read and highly recommend, he outlines the goals of white nationalists and where in the Classics white nationalists look to find support for their horrible beliefs. It turns out that they aren’t necessarily misrepresenting history to support their hate-filled, racist and reprehensible beliefs. Rather, such hatred, bigotry and racist beliefs are common and permeate our entire historical and philosophical narrative. And that is the key part of Dr. Dozier’s book – he isn’t just exposing the logical fallacies of white nationalists, he’s exposing the problems inherent with our historical narratives upon which white nationalists rely.
And it’s understanding that issue which makes the discussion we need to have about history so important. Put simply, if we’re going to have a discussion about white nationalists co-opting the Classics, we need to have a discussion about what the Classics are, what they aren’t and our obligations as students and teachers to telling an accurate and complete narrative about the past and how that reflects on the present. We have to stop idolizing the subject matter and be honest about it. Look, folks, if there’s one theme of this podcast, it’s that history is messy. And this episode returns to that theme again and again and again. There’s nothing perfect about the past. The folks who preceded us weren’t saints. They were people, and people are imperfect. So, let’s stop putting the past on a pedestal and get to work making our present and our future a better place.
While I often kick around politics and current events, this is one of the few episodes that covers both in detail. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed participating in the discussion.
Your reading assignment is Empire of Ruin.
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And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.
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