THE WESTERNERS: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier

1-253360

Account of the creation of the American West in the 19th century, seeking to change the traditional frontier myth that has dominated popular American culture. Tells two detailed and interwoven stories. The first reveals the lives of women and men moving through the American West in the 19th century: Indigenous peoples, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and Canadian and Asian immigrants. The second tracks the attempts to erase these westerners from history, through a frontier myth that lionized individualism and conquest and celebrated white settlers traveling west in search of prosperity. Contains 8 pages of black and white insert and maps throughout.