If there is a better example of modern mythmaking than the settlement of the American frontier, such does not immediately come to mind.
We glimpsed a tiny bit of this mythmaking in our series on the western (see our posts of 25-29 June 2009). This mythmaking has so overshadowed what really happened in those bad old "good old days," that scholars' attempts to restore accuracy and balance to the historical record have often been overlooked:
Over the next several posts, we will examine a wide range of nonfiction that seeks to restore that balance. We will look at books about Manifest Destiny and The Great Reconnaissance; books about The Trail of Tears and Dred Scott; books about land rushes and gold rushes; books about maltreatment of Indians and the "heathen Chinese;" books about scientific surveys and exploration, the Louisiana Purchase, the Pony Express and the coming of the railroad. And all of this will be but the teeniest, tiniest tip of the iceberg as to what's actually available in the marketplace around which to construct a private library devoted to The Wild West.
As the acclaimed revisionist cable TV series Deadwood made clear, it wasn't all rugged cowboys coming to the aid of damsels in distress. While there were indeed magnificent discoveries, great feats of bravery and successful struggles against enormous odds, there also was not a little treachery and deceit, foul deals as often as fair, murderous rage in place of reasoned discourse. Should be interesting....
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