CONFERENCE JOURNAL PRESENTATION SELF-ASSESSMENT

Name: Jack Jones Degree: Level: 3

History
Module and Course Tutor: Kate Fisher Module Code: Date:
HIH3170 28/03/23

Presentation Title: From Caesar to Trump: A Meeting Point

of Receptions Duration: 30 minutes

As you prepare for, deliver and reflect on your conference presentation you should
record your progress under the following headings (you can use dates for separate
entries if you wish).

1. Preparing your abstract: How did you decide on your topic? How did you go about
gathering information? How does it fit into the scope of the module? What feedback did you
get and how did you modify it accordingly?

I decided on my topic through a simple google search. I was eager to incorparte my passion
for contemporary U.S. politics into this module and find apt reasoning to do so when I
explored the plethora of parallels which had been drawn between Donald Trump and Julius
Caesar in U.S. cultural and political discourse. I gathered information from reading many
news articles and journal articles which explored the links. It fits well into the scope of the
module as it is another layer of reception which has been informed by other receptions prior
to it. My initial feedback instructed me to articulate this link more explicitly by providing
contextual information on the way America has used the example of Caesar to protect their
own republic from tyranny.

2. Research: Explain below the research preparations carried out for the presentation. What
research did you do? Where did you find the relevant material?
I found the relevant material mainly on political journalist webpages such as Politico, The
Washington Post and The New York Times. Several editorial pieces had been written on
comparing the democratic backsliding Trump had initiated as President, namely the attacks on
democracy after the 2020 election, which I thought were ripe for analysis from the lens of
classical reception. I then delved into sources of popular culture, looking at YouTube videos
showing the 2017 performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar which depicted a Trump-like
figure as the titular character. I studied the intense reaction to this depiction also. I then found
political cartoons of Trump as Julius Caesar designed to draw a link between the two figures
throughout Trump’s presidency. Finally, I investigated the concept of Caesarism which gave
me academic rationale behind the positive comparisons between Trump and Caesar, and the
notion that Trump represented an incarnation of Caesar destined to restore a perceived
greatness to the country. The primary sources for such praise I found in podcasts and internet
forums.
3. Writing the paper: How did you go about establishing a focus for your paper? How did
you choose what to include and how to structure it?
My structure was based on specifically how Caesar has been viewed throughout American
political history but took its real focus on Donald Trump. I wanted to find the different prisms
of thought Caesar had been received in. I found these in satire and his place in popular
culture, the enduring place he has held in American history as being a threat to democracy
and finally in the concept of Caesarism which had been acculturated into the Trump era by
both his supporters and detractors. I found a way to triangulate all these three aspects around
Caesar and Trump and decided to structure it by going through each one separately then
linking them all together at the end.

4. Consulting with your study group and peers: Did you post information about your
coming presentation on the discussion forum? Did you talk to your peers about it? If so,
what feedback or support did you receive and how has this fed into your preparation?
One day a few weeks before the conference I met with a few of my group members to study
for the presentation together. This was helpful as a lot of the problems we had, although
specific to our own projects, had common symptoms so we worked through those together.
Some things, for example how much primary source analysis to include, were questions I had
for my peers and they were helpful in finding out answers for that.

5. Visual aids and props: How did you go about deciding whether or not to use these? What
aids are you planning to use? Why and how?
I think visual aids are important to any presentation to maintain engagement. I tried to have
well-designed slides with picture on all of them to stimulate my audience. This included
cartoons, minimal wording being used on slides and slick transitions.

6. Practising with your study group: Did you do a practice run-through of your paper? Was
the timing okay? What sort of feedback did you get? How did you adapt your paper
accordingly?
I performed my conference paper in front of my peers in order to get a sense of timer.
I went over the initial 20 minute limit but realised I had to speak slower in order to be
more articulate and pronounced.

7. Aims and Objectives: What was the central issue you wished to present? Did your
presentation have a central argument, and what was it? What debates did you aim to
encourage?
My central issue I wished to present is that receptions are not isolated acts of invocation but
part of a broader chain which all impact each other. My central argument was that invoking
Caesar to describe Trump may have been under the guise of trying to be historically authentic
but represents why the classical world is used. It gives a veneer of legitimacy to one’s point
and historicity when comparisons are usually made emotionally. I wanted to encourage the
debate that the classical world is the ultimate yardstick for historical phenomena.
8. Structure: How did you organise the presentation in order to achieve your objectives?
How did you convey the material? How did you divide your presentation? What handouts,
visual aids did you use to aid audience understanding? How did you encourage discussion? If
this was a group presentation, how did you divide the presenting between the participants?

The presentation was structured to give contextual information first and bring the audience up
to speed on the current moment we are in with Caesar’s chain of reception. This meant
comparisons to Trump could be easily placed in the wider genealogy of how Caesar has been
viewed historically be America. I used diagrams and titles to clearly set out what parts of the
presentation we had reached. I encouraged discussion through pondering at the end of the
future of Trump and whether he would fulfil the prophetic warnings U.S. commentators were
making to Caesar. I was then asked a question of how Joe Biden had been fitted into these
analgoies which is something I planned to have been asked.

9. Reflection on the presentation: How did your presentation go? Did the timings work?
Were you clear, engaging and persuasive? Did your audience learn from your presentation?

My presentation was a success as I was able to convey all the points I wanted to make. The
timing was immaculate, and I finished exactly on the 20 minute mark. I feel I was persuasive,
engaging and clear and able to communicate the points I wanted to make to my peers. The
topic was leaning on the viewers existing knowledge of contemporary politics and I think I
did a successful job of challenging conceptions they might have had before they went into it.

10. Questions and discussion: Was your presentation effective in engendering class
discussion. How effectively did you did you handle questions and ensuing debate?
I thought I handled questions quite effectively as they mainly concerned why the
analogies made between Trump and Caesar are so pervasive. I was able to draw on
my further knowledge and research which didn’t make it into the presentation to
answer these.
From Caesar to
Trump: a meeting
point of Receptions
By Jack Jones
How does Trump view
America’s relationship
to Ancient Rome?
Presentation Outline

v American fears of democratic decay

v Caesar and his reception in Western
Civilization
v Trump as Julius Caesar: In Popular Culture
v Deployed as praise
v As a threat to democracy
v Concluding thoughts
”A Republic, if you
can keep it”
“Is not Britain to America
what Caesar was to Rome?”
Josiah Quincy

In 1778, a particularly dark moment for the

revolutionary cause, George Washington had
a performance of Addison’s ‘Cato’ shown to
his troops
The play depicts Cato, who was an enemy of
Caesar’s in the Roman Civil War, as willing to
die for the virtuous cause of liberty.
Washington’s decision to step down after his
second term is regarded as setting a
precedent for a peaceful transition of power.
‘Why is Julius Caesar the
most famous of all
Romans?’

Caesar’s life and actions have seen him emerge as one of

the most studied and popular figures from Roman History.
‘Even from the time of his own writing about himself,
Julius Caesar’s life has been arranged, fictionalized, and
sensationalized so as to become a set of canonic events
and concepts whose telling reveals much more than just
the minutiae of one individual’s existence.’
Wyke goes onto argue he has acquired an almost mythic
status; who can exist anywhere on a spectrum between
tyrant hero depending on the aims of those who invoke
him.
The triad of Caesar’s receptions

1. Satirized in 2. Caesarism 3. Cautionary

Popular as a proto- tale of the
Culture and in fascist excesses of
political ideology used unchecked
discourse by strongmen power
Trump, Caesar and
Satire
 The Political Cartoon

Political cartoons play an

important role in simplifying
the characteristics of our
leaders.
However, with Trump’s style it
has an even closer
resemblance to reality.
Staging Receptions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qfzqBr1qh0
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

“Shakespeare’s version of the drama is ambiguous, and critics have

long been divided about whether in Julius Caesar Shakespeare is
championing republicanism or condemning it.”

It has been a key bridge between American Democracy and the

Roman Republic in the popular imagination.
Responses to the play
The play led to outrage, mainly from the right-wing supporters of Trump, and led to
sponsors such as Delta and the Bank of America pulling funding from the production.
Donald Trump Jr suggested it was responsible for violent attacks against conservative
politicians.
"We recognize that our interpretation of the play has provoked heated discussion;
audiences, sponsors and supporters have expressed varying viewpoints and
opinions. Such discussion is exactly the goal of our civically-engaged theater; this
discourse is the basis of a healthy democracy.”
“This show warns about what happens when you try to preserve a democracy by non-
democratic means. Spoiler alert it doesn’t up to good.”
Trump and
American
Caesarism
Understanding/promoting appeal
Jerry Falwell, an evangelical leader, tweeted: “Jesus said love our neighbors as ourselves but
never told Caesar how to run Rome – he never said Roman soldiers should turn the other cheek
in battle or that Caesar should allow all the barbarians to be Roman citizens or that Caesar
should tax the rich to help poor. That’s our job.”
If Trump is an incarnation as an American Caesar, why would this be relished?
Caesarism is an ideology which retrospectively tries to rationalize Caesar and re-apply the
forces which gave him power to contemporary political periods.
Caesar’s reception is so powerful it has been used as with leaders like Trump where they are
canonized in an ideology which was created through engaging with antiquity.
How has Caesar been used as the logical
framework to assess Trump’s actions?
‘America is eerily retracing
Rome’s steps to a fall. Will
it turn around before its
two late?
The Julius Caesar analogy is being used to navigate an extremely tense and divisive
moment in political history.
It is used to contextualise the unprecedented landscape American politics is in, where it
seems the very fabric of its democracy is under duress.
Caesar is so malleable as a concept he is being used on both sides. In combating Trump,
the fears of America’s republic undergoing the same fate as Rome’s is used as a warning
siren whereas the more the charismatic strongman Caesar can also be deployed as is
being used by Trump supporters as a potential remedy to a divided and polarised society.
Why do we make historical analogies?

Using the Framework of Gavriel D. Rosenfeld:

1. Analysis – ‘they compare historical phenomena in order to discover

deeper truths about their relationship’

2. Advocacy – ‘Because they allow us to infer similarities beyond those of the

original comparison, all analogies provide lessons for the future.’

‘In both cases, however, analogies display rhetorical dimensions in

appealing to, and enabling us to express, our emotions.’
Conclusions
• A comparative understanding of Trump and Caesar cannot be
achieved without knowledge of the wider chain of reception

• The multi-faceted perception of Caesar in the modern world also

means these comparisons are subjective in whether they are
critiques or have elements of praise baked within them.

• The story of Caesar has been used as a medium for American

political commentators to offer a prognosis for the state of their
own democracy.

• “In popular culture, however, Caesar’s manifestations vary wildly:

although he continues to register at a political level, he can also
signify imperial excess or martial prowess, and he is available as a
medium for lampooning the various guises of his own reception.”
– W. Jeffery Tatum.
Thank you for listening – Any
Questions
Bibliography
Heino, Brett, A Modern Day Caesar? Donald Trump and American Caeserism, (Wiley Online Library, 2020)

‘America Is Eerily Retracing Rome’s Steps to a Fall. Will It Turn Around Before It’s Too Late,’ Tim Elliot, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/03/donald-trump-julius-caesar-
433956 (2020)

Trump as Julius Caesar: anger over play misses Shakespeare’s point, says scholar, Lois Beckett, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jun/12/donald-trump-shakespeare-play-julius-
caesar-new-york (2017)

Thurman, Chris, ‘Burying Caesar… or Praising Him? Shakespeare and the Populist Right in the United States,’ English Studies in Africa, Volume 63 (2020)

Rosenfield, Gavriel, “Who Was “Hitler” Before Hitler? Historical Analogies and the Struggle to Understand Nazism, 1930–1945,” Central European History, Vol.51 No.2 (June 2018)

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