HIST 141 Myth and Reality on the American Frontier: Violence, Race Democracy and the Forging of America
Are Americans a frontier people? For most of its existence the people of the United States have thought so. The frontier, they thought, was the crucible of American virtues; it was the laboratory of democracy, the breeding ground of rugged individualism and self-reliance, the place where European civilization met the "howling wilderness" and created something new, something American. More recently many Americans have tried to understand the darker side of that story, thinking through the painful consequences of defining American identity in ways that glorify conquest, colonialism, and bloodshed. The Native people of North America, who the old story cast in the role of villains, have also fought back against the consequences of frontier mythology. This seminar investigates the role of the frontier in the forging of American identity-forging in the sense of fusing and also in the sense of fabricating. By reading and discussing primary sources, we will use the tools of historical inquiry to try to understand the reality of the frontier, the making of its myths, and the importance for the present of coming to grips with both.