The Classical Myth and Imperial Power

The adoption of classical architecture in America is linked to the rise of a landholding elite and merchant class, serving as a stage for republican heroes and later for the conspicuous wealth of industrial barons, masking social inequalities.

The Renaissance's turn to Roman and Greek forms is shown as both liberating (restoring humanism) and oppressive (stereotyping creativity and reinforcing class divisions between the literate elite and 'lower orders').

The chapter explores how classical architecture served as a stage for the heroic actions of revolutionary leaders and reinforced the myth of a classical republic.

The chapter examines how the classical myth in architecture was rooted in the social conditions of land-monopoly and slavery, and how the Revolutionary War fused classical culture with the activities of the community, turning it into a powerful myth that shaped the scale and style of early republican buildings.

The pure classical myth created the mold of American architecture, but later buildings showed illiterate mimicry of classical forms.