Frontier Western Discourse at the Turn of the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century (original) (raw)

Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks, 2011

Abstract

Since the first British colonists in North America began to give expression to their New World experiences, the American discourse on the frontier West has taken numerous shapes. Certainly, variations in the who, what, where, when, and why of the discourse have affected its content; nevertheless, the assorted statements and expressions that comprise frontier western discourse have had a certain coherence. From the early seventeenth century, recurring modes of expression, concepts, and strategies or themes have furnished this discourse with a degree of continuity. Most important, the ongoing effort to give American frontier experience some clear shape has provided a continuous source of unity. The geographic nature of the actual frontier may have varied from eastern forests to midwestern prairies to far western plains, deserts, and mountains, but the underlying view of the western frontier as a liminal zone, a borderland, on the edge of civilization has pervaded European-American efforts to represent frontier existence.

Richard Wattenberg hasn't uploaded this paper.

Let Richard know you want this paper to be uploaded.

Ask for this paper to be uploaded.