Rachel Sternberg, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Classics at Case Western Reserve University

Timothy Wutrich, Ph.D. – Senior Instructor of Classics at Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

The authors of the U.S. Constitution read Thucydides and Cicero. The classic texts on politics and government helped shape their position that democratic politics was vulnerable to perversion by the “propensity of mankind to fall into animosities” and “an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power” and so they argued the Constitution was desirable precisely because it could help prevent the effects of demagoguery. They knew from Roman experience that “republics” with complex divisions of power also could be overcome by tyrants.

Many commentators have linked these concerns to the candidacy and now presidency of Donald Trump. A column in The Economist titled, “Dude, where’s my toga?” noted that, “As the parade of billionaires and generals joins Donald Trump’s cabinet, it’s hard not to be reminded of the Roman republic.” But to what extent can the experience of Ancient Greece and Rome actually help us understand the causes and future of the Trump presidency? What does classical history tell us about human nature, class and group jealousies, politicians’ grasping for power, mob psychology, and the manipulation of fear? What questions can we ask of those texts, and what answers might we receive?

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies 

About Our Guests

Rachel Sternberg’s courses include Greek Civilization, Greek History, Classical Mythology, Women in the Ancient World, Elementary Ancient Greek, Sophocles, and Xenophon. The highlight of each year is a study trip to Greece. Sternberg holds a B.A. in archaeology and history from Cornell University, an M.A. in classics also from Cornell, and a Ph.D. in Greek from Bryn Mawr College. Her monograph, Tragedy Offstage: Suffering and Sympathy in Ancient Athens, was published by University of Texas Press in 2006, and her edited volume, Pity and Power in Ancient Athens, by Cambridge University Press in 2005. She is interested in the history of emotion, emotional discourse and moral rhetoric, and the reception of the classical tradition in the age of Jefferson. She is writing a book on how Athenian humane discourse relates to modernity’s Human Rights.

Timothy Wutrich is the author of the book Prometheus and Faust: The Promethean Revolt in Drama from Classical Antiquity to Goethe. His scholarly interests include all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman drama, Vergil, and the Classical Tradition in literature and the arts.

At CWRU, Dr. Wutrich teaches Greek and Latin language and literature, Greek and Roman drama and theater in translation, Greek and Roman literature surveys, Greek and Roman civilization, and Greek and Latin elements (etymology). He also regularly teaches in the university’s SAGES program.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

February 10: Immigration Policy and the Trump Administration. With David Wolfe Leopold J.D., Past President, American Immigration Lawyers Association.

February 17: The New Health Education Campus and the Future of Health Care. With James Young M.D., Executive Dean, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.

February 24: Challenges Facing the U.S. Intelligence Community. With Vincent E. McHale, Ph.D., Marcus A. Hanna Emeritus Professor of Political Science.

March 3: Staffing and Organizing the Trump Presidency. With David B. Cohen, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, University of Akron.

March 10: Nuclear Weapons. With William J. Fickinger, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Physics.

March 17: No program, Spring Break.

March 24: Energy Storage: A Key to Sustainability. With Daniel A. Scherson, Ph.D., Frank Hovorka Professor of Chemistry and Director, Ernest B. Yeager Center for Electrochemical Sciences.

March 31: Merkel’s Challenge: Managing Trump, Putin, and a Million Syrians. With Mark K. Cassell, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.

April 7: Program to be Determined

April 14: Brazil’s Political Crises. With Juscelino F. Colares, Ph.D., Schott-Van den Eyden Professor of Business Law and Associate Director, Frederick K. Cox International Law Center.

April 21: Program to be Determined

April 28: Putin’s Russia. With Kelly M. McMann, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science and Director, International Studies Program.