Description
Book SynopsisThe concept of settler colonialism offers an invaluable lens to reframe early westerns and travel pictures as re-enactments of the United States'' repressed past. Westerns in particular propose a remarkable vision of white settlers'' westward expansion that reveals a transformation in what American Progress came to mean.Initially, these films tracked settlers moving westward across the Appalachians, Great Plains, and Rockies. Their seizure of empty land provoked continual resistance from Indigenous peoples and Mexicans; pioneers suffered extreme hardships, but heroic male figures usually scattered or wiped out those aliens. Some films indulged in nostalgic empathy for the Indian as a Vanishing American. In the early 1910s, westerns became increasingly popular. In Indian pictures, Native Americans ranged from devious savages, victims of white violence, and Noble Savages to in-between figures caught between cultures and mixed-descent peoples partnered for security or advantage. Mexicans
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: "Wild West" Subjects to 1910 Touring the West 1 Chapter 2: Single-Reel Westerns, 1910-1913 Touring the West 2 Chapter 3: Multiple-Reel Westerns, 1912-1914 Touring the West 3 Chapter 4: William S. Hart, "The Silent Man" Touring the West 4 Chapter 5: Harry Carey, Tom Mix, Douglas Fairbanks Afterword Bibliography Endnotes Index
