This monograph examines appropriations of Caesar primarily in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, though it touches briefly on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century receptions. Wyke also expands her analysis beyond the United States at times. Her decade-long research on the reception of Caesar has already spawned several publications, including the monograph Caesar. A Life in Western Culture (2007). Despite some overlap, the current volume presents much additional material and fresh insights through its focus on the United States in diachronic arrangement. W. seeks to reveal ‘broad thematic shifts in Caesar's use’ and to show ‘how that use intersected with political and social developments in the United States and abroad’ (11).

One shift is expressed in the book's division into two parts. The first is entitled ‘Education’ and contains three chapters, spanning the period from 1900 to 1920, while the second part, covering 1920 to 2008, is concerned with ‘Political Culture’. A portion of Part One illustrates classicists' efforts to ‘enliven’ the study of excerpts from Caesar's Gallic War in high school Latin classes. W. hints at the rôle of progressive educators in motivating these efforts, which included illustrated editions and model-making. Supporting materials like historical accounts and juvenile fiction tended to convey lessons on courage, strategy and effective leadership, contrasting with the Founding Generation's condemnation of Caesar as a brutal tyrant, although the earlier critique recurred at times. A persistent theme in W.'s study is the link between commercial interests and notions of educational uplift, as in the marketing of silent motion pictures.

Firmly established in American education by 1900, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar became a tool in assimilating immigrant children. Making brilliant use of sources like school texts, W. pinpoints links between changing political values and shifts in the perception of Caesar. In a handbook for teachers, for instance, ‘the Roman dictator is given positive qualities that match turn-of the-century support for the prospect of American imperium’ (52). Presidential assassinations prompted educators to emphasize the horror of political violence, diminishing the status of Brutus while elevating that of Caesar. Similarly, early twentieth-century theatre productions presented Brutus as a tortured figure contrasting with a dazzling Caesar. The beginning of World War I spurred comparisons with the Roman campaign in Gaul. Caesar was alternately seen as a brutal invader, admirable general or an ambiguous figure, while sympathies with France increased interest in Vercingetorix. In the post-War period, however, waning enthusiasm for the Gallic War's military exploits coincided with a diminished rôle of Latin in the curriculum.

Ch. 4, entitled ‘Dictatorship. 1920s–1945’, is anchored in a deft analysis of Orson Welles's Death of a Dictator, the iconic 1937 adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. But W. also includes less familiar American critiques of emerging dictatorships and surveys appropriations of Caesar in Italian fascism. She maintains that some American journalists emphasized the effectiveness of fascist propaganda to deflect from their initial approval of Mussolini. By the 1930s ‘“Caesar” came to be deployed regularly in the United States as shorthand for gangsterism, demagoguery, and dictatorship’ (128).

The centrepiece of the following chapter (‘Totalitarianism. 1945–1955’) is a superb analysis of MGM's 1953 movie Julius Caesar, highlighting references to the totalitarian regimes of Hitler and Stalin. But this decade also produced an introspective Caesar in Thornton Wilder's The Ides of March (1948). A heroic comic book version of Caesar (1950) tapped into admiration for American generals and anti-Communist sentiment while combining mass appeal with claims to educational utility. The chapter's incisive synthesis notes that images of Caesar in modern media ‘capture the disjointed political ideologies of the Cold War era’ (166).

A careful reading of the two final chapters (‘Presidential Power. 1956–1989’ and ‘Empire. 1989–2008’) reveals a fascinating story. Though occasionally used to endorse presidential leadership and reform efforts, appropriations of Caesar in the '50s and '60s served more often to voice concern about excessive presidential power or manipulation of the electorate. Following the political turmoil of the 1960s, references to Caesar focused on breakdown of order and failure of leadership, while Caesars Palace (sic!) in Las Vegas was adding another facet to American consumer culture. In the wake of Watergate, theatre productions of Julius Caesar aimed to expose a pervasive loss of values in Washington and the impact of mass media. By 1979 a more culturally inclusive Julius Caesar appeared on stage. After a marked decline, a flood of references to the dictator expressed dismay over a perceived overreach in executive authority, misguided empire-building and concomitant decline of the American republic during the presidency of George W. Bush.

W. offers a wealth of fascinating sources, and especially in Part Two integrates recent scholarship in modern history and political analysis with her own astute observations and case studies. While some might wish for a more tightly constructed argument and synthesis, the author weaves a host of insights into her account and makes a good case for the thesis implicit in the ‘twinning of themes and time periods’ (11–12) of her chapter arrangement. She amply supports the claims offered in her introductory preview, namely her assessment, that ‘one of the distinctive features’ of Caesar's reception in the United States is ‘the extent to which the Roman dictator is utilized in cultural forms that openly seek to create or interrogate a sense of nationhood and of American identity’ (9). Elegantly written and featuring pertinent illustrations, the volume should also appeal to interested general readers and to instructors seeking to include American Caesar receptions in a course. The book demonstrates the exciting possibilities in studying the use of classical figures in modern history and opens avenues for further exploration.