Frontier myth
The frontier myth or myth of the West is one of the influential myths in American culture. The frontier is the concept of a place that exists at the edge of a civilization, particularly during a period of expansion. The American frontier occurred throughout the 17th to 20th centuries as European Americans colonized and expanded across North America. This period of time became romanticized and idealized in literature and art to form a myth. Historian Richard Slotkin defines the myth of the frontier as "America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top."
Definitions
Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis
In the United States, the concept of the frontier first became significant in 1893 when Frederick Jackson Turner used the term as a model for understanding American culture in his essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", read before the American Historical Association in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exhibition. In his Frontier Thesis, Turner defined the concept of the frontier as "the meeting point between savagery and civilization," and argued that this point was the foundation for American identity and politics. Turner's interpretation of American expansion was that Americans had moved west in waves, and the frontier was the tip of those movements, always the furthest point from civilization. Turner claimed that at the frontier American pioneers were transformed by their interaction with Native Americans and the wilderness to become rugged individuals who prized their freedom and individualism. As the frontier continued to move westward, it continued to transform the pioneering Americans who went there, and in turn transform the nation. Turner argued that nationalism, democracy, and a rejection of European ideals were a result of the frontier. Thus, Turner concluded that America was only unique because of its interaction with the frontier and the West as it developed during expansion, "to the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics."The heroes of Turner's thesis are the farmers, those who come right after the hunter/trapper pathfinders. In his eyes they are the first step toward civilization, and when they arrive the boundary of the frontier moves westward. In a broad sense, the notion of the frontier was the edge of the settled country where unlimited free land was available and thus unlimited opportunity.
While Turner did not create the myth of the frontier, he gave voice to it, and his frontier thesis was a major contribution to the general acceptance of the myth by scholars in the twentieth century. The focus on the West, and particularly the idealized concept of the frontier, placed those areas as foundational for American identity. Rather than looking to the Eastern city, such as Boston or Philadelphia, as the epitome of American ideals and values, the focus of American history and identity was on the farmers who were slowly but steadily moving farther west, searching for land and a modest income. Turner's influence can be seen in nearly every single work of Western history to follow, either dealt with directly or indirectly, particularly each time a scholar uses the word frontier.
The work of Richard Slotkin
Historian Richard Slotkin has studied the myth of the frontier and written three books on the subject, Regeneration Through Violence, Fatal Environment, and Gunfighter Nation. His goal throughout this trilogy is to trace the myth of the frontier from the original colonies to the popular culture works of the twentieth century, tracing the evolution and influence of the myth. Throughout these works, he defines myth as "a set of narratives that acquire through specifiable historical action a significant ideological charge." His definition evolves throughout the trilogy, beginning with the general understanding of the myth of the frontier as viewing America as a land of opportunity for the strong to conquer, then incorporating capitalist exploitation of the land as America evolved into an industrialist nation, finally being used a vehicle for cultural ideology in the twentieth century era in popular culture.Overview
There are two "Wests" – the historical West in which farmers, ranchers, miners, prostitutes, and criminals pursued their happiness, and the mythic West that took deep root in the American imagination. Western novels, mainstream literature, newspapers, and plays portrayed the West as both a barren landscape full of savages and a romanticized idealistic way of living for rugged men.Being a frontiersman in the so-called Wild West, a cowboy, rancher, or gold miner were idealized within American mystery. Mark Twain colorfully related that accounts of gold strikes in the popular press had supported the feverish expansion of the mining frontier and provoked mining "stampedes" during the 1860s and 1870s: "Every few days news would come of the discovery of a brand-new mining region: immediately the papers would teem with accounts of its richness, and away the surplus population would scamper to take possession…"
Similarly the life of the hardy cowboy driving dusty herds of longhorns northward from Texas to the cattle markets Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas, was romanticized by the Eastern press. This transformed the cattle industry until the late 1870s. The former image of cowboys as ne'er-do-well and drifter changed significantly. They were now glorified as men of rough-hewn integrity and self-reliant strength.
The origin and development of the myth
Beginning in the original colonies, Richard Slotkin argues that the settlers brought a synthesis of romantic European myths and ideas across the Atlantic Ocean, particularly the idea that the New World was a place where they could reinvent themselves. However, since the land was occupied by Native Americans the incoming colonists took the land with violence, hence the title regeneration through violence. Slotkin continues on to argue that the violent interactions with Native Americans became central to the myth of the frontier, and the American hero has been one who mediated between these two worlds. The first national hero to do this was Daniel Boone, the first archetype of the Western hero, "An American hero is the lover of the spirit of the wilderness, and his acts of love and sacred affirmation are acts of violence against the spirit and her avatars." This is the foundation for the myth of the frontier that began in the colonies. It was further developed in the 19th century to meet the growing needs of industrialization, incorporating the exploitation of land. The myth of the frontier held promise of wealth in the undiscovered lands and thus encouraged settlement, but Slotkin argues that the myth of the frontier distorted the historical reality that the methods for attaining the wealth were developed in the city. Slotkin illustrates that the myth of the frontier was created in the colonies through violent interactions, and was developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to fit the needs of a developing civilization.Creators and promulgators: the Frontier Club
Christine Bold in The Frontier Club: Popular Westerns and Cultural Power, 1800–1924, builds on the works of Richard Slotkin and G. Edward White to deconstruct the creation of the mythic West formula for literature at the end of the nineteenth century. Bold argues that the mythic West formula was created by a group of writers, politicians, painters, and others, whom she calls the "Frontier Club". The Frontier Club is primarily made of the Boone and Crockett Club but does consist of others outside that group. Bold notes about eight men that were key in the group, with Theodore Roosevelt as the founder and central figure, with Owen Wister and Frederic Remington being influential. Bold argues that it was this collection of men that brought together the cultural themes present in the myth of the frontier to create literature and art that distorted the reality of the West and turned it into a romanticized place. Bold argues the goal of the group was to sway public opinion so that they could lobby for legislation to protect hunting grounds in the West.Bold continues on to show how the Frontier Club used their money and influence to silence the voices of blacks, Native Americans, immigrants, and non-elite white men. They did this both in their creation of the formula for the myth of the frontier, and in public policy. In the regards to myth their efforts were successful, and the common myth of the frontier to follow this period features the white cowboy riding in to save the white townsfolk, usually from Native Americans or Hispanics.