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How the Odyssey illuminates the two sides of the American mind, from one of our most influential cultural commentators.
The Odyssey is among the oldest-known written works. Yet it is somehow profoundly contemporary. Its themes are inescapably human: the desire to strike out for new adventures; the aspiration to be more than human; the temptation to wallow in beastlike torpor; the impulse to exact vengeance; the possibility that mercy might bring a violent cycle to an end.
Surprisingly, as the celebrated political philosopher Patrick Deneen explains in this eye-opening book, the Odyssey is also the most American of ancient texts. Like Odysseus, Americans have two fundamental impulses: we are a people simultaneously animated by commitments to being at home and leaving home. Deneen shows us that the deep ambivalence at the heart of the Odyssey is also our own—as some of our greatest books and films attest, from Huckleberry Finn to The Wizard of Oz to Field of Dreams to It’s a Wonderful Life.
The coincidence of the United States semiquincentennial and the release of the blockbuster film The Odyssey affords a remarkable opportunity to explore the deep similarities between the ancient Greek epic and the American character. With his characteristic insight, Deneen reveals how Americans’ Western inheritance contains a paradox, and a set of tensions, that remain at the core of our divided souls.
“I used to say the great American epic was Virgil’s Aeneid. Deneen counters—very convincingly—that it’s the Odyssey. In this cultural moment where we’re confused about the value of the American project, perhaps the reminder of the beauty of this once noble idea comes from an ancient source.”—Jessica Hooten Wilson, Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University |
“Patrick Deneen, one of America’s leading social critics, once again proves himself to be on the leading edge of understanding the crisis of our times. Here he reveals the central longing that has informed his own work and that of the restless American soul: the longing for home. This work is the best political theory has to offer: a rumination that beautifully weaves together the great ideas of our civilization, the culture around us and within us, and the unspoken, often ambivalent, yearnings of the human heart.”—Joshua Mitchell, author, American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time
“America is at once both ancient and modern, deeply conservative and deeply radical. One of our most original scholars, Patrick Deneen, dives to the bottom of this paradox, noting that we’re a people always on the move. From Hengist and Horsa to Lewis and Clark, we have experienced our own Odyssey.”—Bradley J. Birzer, Hillsdale College
Preface: The American Journey Continues
Introduction: A Restless People
Chapter 1: Beasts, Gods, and Humans
Chapter 2: Mortal Beings
Chapter 3: Ordinary People
Chapter 4: The Ambivalence of Being at Home
Conclusion: Navigating Scylla and Charybdis
Appendix: A Brief Summary of the Odyssey
Acknowledgments
Notes