A cultural analysis of the first two decades of the 21st century, reading tragic events from 9/11, the Arab Spring, drone warfare and the threat of climate change with the critical attention usually devoted to tragic drama and philosophy.

From the trauma of September 11th, through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the environmental warning signs of climate change, this book reflects on the crises and terrifying events of the early 21st century and argues that a knowledge of tragedy from the works of Sophocles to Shakespeare to Samuel Beckett can help us understand them. Jennifer Wallace offers a cultural analysis of the tragic events of the past two decades with reference to a litany of key dramatic texts, including Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Euripides’ Hecuba, Iphigenia in Aulis, Trojan Women and Bacchae, Homer’s Iliad, Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean and Enemy of the People, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Macbeth and King Lear, among others.

"This rich analysis is valuable not only because it underlines the importance of a broader cultural horizon, showing the topicality of more or less “ancient” literary and philosophical resources, but also because it celebrates different evaluations of current events and historical consciousness in a remarkably original approach." - Modern Drama

"Tragedy since 9/11 is a demanding, provocative read—well researched, articulate, and persuasive. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." - CHOICE

"Powerful, deeply felt, thoughtful and convincing." - Times Higher Education

"[A] remarkable book … [that] draws attention to the relationship between the horrors of the first two decades of the twenty-first century and the wider human conditions of tragedy and suffering." - Studies in Theatre and Performance

"A bold and ambitious book ... It is the astonishing range of material [Wallace] draws from our more immediate past and present that makes her book so rich and suggestive ... One ends Wallace’s impassioned book with a deepened sense of the historical crisis through which we are living." - Modern Language Review