Empire of Ruin

Empire of Ruin traces the cultural history and reception of the classical tradition in African American cultural production. While the classical tradition has provided a repository of ideas that have allowed white American elites to conceive of the nation as an ideal Republic, Empire of Ruin offers a critical counter-narrative, showing how African American writers, artists, and activists have characterized this as emblematic of a national commitment to an economy of enslavement and a geopolitical project of empire.