An Alternate Perspective on the Mythical West :: essays papers

An Alternate Perspective on the Mythical westernmostThe question of the American double-u has intrigued me throughout my life. The tales of cowboys and Indians, of the rugged individual and nature, has perpetually sparked my interest. A land with such quixotic stories of adventure, the West has instilled itself in American history. The yarns and movies of the mythical frontier provide a erudition to which I among more others have chosen to adopt at one time or a nonher. This perception has been embedded in many youths, providing a flag-waving(prenominal) judgment of America using the West as a symbol of the individualisation to which our forefathers fought for. Yet it is human nature to be inquisitive, and so I delved into this topic in the hopes of developing a better understanding of the history of the coarse American frontier.The myth of the American West has been intertwined throughout United States history. It is a great deal perceived as a romantic story, a le gacy that has essential itself in American culture and society. The 1890 census announced the end of the frontier, shutting a chapter in American history. In 1893, Frederick Jackson food turner argued the grandness of the frontier in shaping American politics, economy, and culture. Turners nationalistic view of the West created a problem, providing a mythical nonion of a realistically rough arena filled with conflict and frustration. Furthermore, the thesis proposed by Turner proved to be futile for the present and future. The firmness of Turners thesis left it susceptible to challenges, creating a revolution of diachronic study of the Old West in the mid-twentieth century. Historians dedicated to the American West have branched off from Turner and have created a orbit that hinges on this complex area. These historians have challenged the old myths of a quaint West, seeking to expose the true nature of Western expansion. Among these historians, Patricia Nelson Limerick has developed a perception of the West based on the stories of the men and women who actually lived there. In her book, The bequest of Conquest The Unbroken Past of the American West, Limerick maintains that Westward expansion was not a romantic saga of cowboys and Indians, but instead was a gradual conquering based on economics and politics. In a sense, the West was not founded by rugged individualists, but rather by competition and profit.