GUNFIGHTER NATION

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by Richard Slotkin (1992)

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An extensive examination of American myth and culture with a strong focus on history and film. Describes the myth of the American frontier as a three-stage process that first encompasses separation, then temporary regression into a primitive or natural state, and finally regeneration through violence. See Rambo: First Blood among many others. A frontier war, which is a war of colonial expansion, negates class struggle within the settler colony precisely because there remains land and resources that may be forcibly obtained from beyond the boundaries of the settlement. In short, natives may be robbed, and their lands expropriated, whilst involuntary slaves may be compelled to perform unattractive and demanding labour. However, this scenario is contingent upon the ongoing availability of said resources. Once the land and resources of the original custodians and owners is gobbled up, class warfare within the settler colony returns. A bitter class struggle emerges in America that rages from the 1880s to the late 1930s. Haymarket anarchists. Industrial Workers of the World. Pinkerton Detectives. The lynching of IWW organiser Frank Little in 1917. The American dream as nightmare filled with hypocrisy and greed. Two Red Scares of 1918-1920 and 1948-1952. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the effects of blacklisting. The Vietnam War and the failed attempt to replace the Vietnamese social and political model with an American version. The American rejection of détente with the Soviets during the 1980s. No reason why a myth of national solidarity and progress must be bound to commercial interests or a ruling elite. Non-fiction. 864 pages.

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DETAILS:

Title: Gunfighter nation. The myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America

Year: 1992

Author: Richard Slotkin

Pages: 864

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Book review by Keith Salter