Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America - Hardcover

Slotkin, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689121636 ISBN 13: 9780689121630

Publisher: Atheneum, 1992

Synopsis

Examines the fundamental ways in which the frontier myth influences American culture and politics, drawing on dime novels, Hollywood westerns, and the writings of political figures

About this title

Review:

Gunfighter Nation concludes Richard Slotkin's three-volume study, which began in 1973 with the publication of Regeneration Through Violence, of the significance of the frontier in the American imagination. Looking primarily at pulp novels and films, Slotkin takes a painstakingly thorough look at the relationship between imagery of the West in industrial mass culture and U.S. foreign policy during the 20th century. Specifically, he looks at how the previous century's "frontier aristocrat" served as the model diplomat for America's agenda of economic imperialism from the Spanish American War to the "police action" in Vietnam.

As the U.S. gained international stature, the archetype of the frontier aristocrat articulated the goals and ideals of the American populace. But Slotkin shows how, as time progressed, the increasing irrelevance of the frontier myth on foreign soil foiled the prowess of the U.S. war machine. At the book's conclusion, in which images of the My Lai Massacre are juxtaposed against the final shootout of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, the contradiction between faith and experience becomes painfully evident. Gunfighter Nation delivers the satisfaction of a historian with the acquired wisdom to address directly the issues that inspired his lifelong work. --John M. Anderson

From the Publisher:

The concluding volume of Richard Slotkin's highly acclaimed trilogy draws on a wide range of sources to examine the pervasive influence of Wild West myths on American culture and politics.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0689121636
• ISBN 13: 9780689121630
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 850