Our Country/Whose Country? (eBook)

The 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 "e;American Progress"e; came to mean. Initially, these films tracked settlers moving westward across the Appalachians, Great Plains, and Rockies. Their seizure of "e;empty land"e; provoked continual resistance from Indigenous peoples and Mexicans; "e;pioneers"e; suffered extreme hardships, but heroic male figures usually scattered or wiped out those "e;aliens."e; Some films indulged in nostalgic empathy for the Indian as a "e;Vanishing American."e; In the early 1910s, westerns became increasingly popular. In Indian pictures, Native Americans ranged from devious savages, victims of white violence, and "e;Noble Savages"e; to "e;in-between"e; figures caught between cultures and "e;mixed-descent peoples"e; partnered for security or advantage. Mexicans took positions across a similar spectrum. In cowboy and cowgirl films, "e;ordinary"e; whites became heroes and heroines fighting outlaws; and bandits like Broncho Billy underwent transformation into "e;good badmen."e; The mid to late 1910s saw a shift, as Indian pictures and cowgirl films faded and male figures, embodied by movie stars, dominated popular series. In different ways, William S. Hart and Harry Carey reinvented the "e;good badman"e; as a stoic, if troubled, figure of white masculinity. In cowboy films of comic romance, Tom Mix engaged in dangerous stunts and donned costumes that made him a fashionable icon. In parodies, Douglas Fairbanks subverted the myth of "e;American Progress,"e; sporting a nonchalant grin of effortless self-confidence. Nearly all of their films assumed firmly settled white communities, rarely threatened by Indians or Mexicans. Masked as "e;Manifest Destiny,"e; the expropriation of the West seemed settled once and for all. Our Country/Whose Country? offers a rich and expansive examination of the significance of early westerns and travel pictures in the ideological foundations of "e;our country."e;