Shakespeare in the Present

Philip Goldfarb Styrt is an Assistant Professor of English at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago in 2015, and his first book, Shakespeare’s Political Imagination: The Historicism of Setting was published in 2021 by Arden Shakespeare.

Introduction: Shakespeare and Biden

Partisan Polarization

Polarization in late Republican Rome

Caesar and Antony beyond Trump

Partisanship closer to home

The American War of the Roses

Pretextual Insurrections and Unpunished Crimes

Henry Bolingbroke’s inheritance and Richard II’s throne

1399 and 2021

Elections, disputes, and danger to the state

The importance of consequences

The Tyranny of Expectations

From Hal to Harry

"Nothing can come of nothing"

Senator Joe and President Biden

Public negotiations

Inconstant Coalitions

Powerful allies

Wavering commitments

My 80% friend

Illegitimate Justice

The Queen and the Jew

Court-packing

Catering to self-interest

Lost France and Lost Afghanistan

France forever lost

The Hundred Years War and the "forever war"

Conclusion: Shakespeare and Presentism