A political climate dominated by intolerance and polarization has transformed conversations about public engagement in classical studies. The most common thread in these conversations has been a call to end scholarly assumptions of cultural superiority and exclusivity in the field: such assumptions, it is argued, have too often fueled a classicizing rhetoric of racial supremacy, as in the far right's appropriations of Greek and Roman antiquity during the 2016 US presidential elections. In addition to ethical concerns about complicity in hate speech, many have also pointed out that a classical exceptionalism is at odds with public commitments to inclusivity and diversity in the field, as well as current trends in critical theory. Similar critiques have been directed at accounts of "Western civilization" which downplay the history of violence associated with that tradition and suppose a Western cultural homogeneity that does not stand up to any amount of serious scrutiny. In short, for the field of classical studies to thrive in the age of Trump, such positions should be reckoned with and ultimately abandoned as a justification for the study of antiquity.

As these discussions evolve online against the backdrop of a rapidly changing political frontier, a topical book-length study, like Emily Katz Anhalt’s Enraged: Why Violent Times Need Ancient Greek Myths, does not always make for an easy fit. The book is also an explicit response to today's toxic political culture, deplores the attrition of democratic norms, and is committed to their restoration. It also often presents original appeals to compassionate reflection and justice in the study of antiquity, which, through readings of Homeric epic and Greek tragedy, Anhalt prescribes as an antidote to modern political dysfunction. But Anhalt’s study falls out-of-step with current debates by asserting a unique Greek propensity towards compassion and justice, which Anhalt considers to be characteristic of all Greek myths rather than merely distinguishing Homer and the tragedians. Taken together with uneasy asides about continuities between the enlightened Greeks and their legatees in the modern West, these positions weaken Anhalt’s more engaging insights, especially as the scholarly conversation moves away from claiming any kind of exceptionalism as the basis for public engagement in today's fractious society.