Curtis Dozier, "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" (Yale UP, 2026)

Curtis Dozier's The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate

(Yale University Press, 2026) explores how white nationalist thought

leaders use ancient Greece and Rome to claim historical precedent for

their violent and oppressive politics.It is difficult to ignore the resurgence of white nationalist

movements in the United States, many of which employ symbols and slogans

from Greco-Roman antiquity. A long-established neo-Nazi website

incorporates an image of the Parthenon into its logo, and rioters wore

Spartan helmets in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

These juxtapositions may appear incongruous to people who associate the

ancient world with enlightened political ideals and sophisticated

philosophical inquiry. But, as Dozier points out in this

thought-provoking book, it’s hard to imagine a historical period better