Whether seen as a land of opportunity or as paradise lost, the
American West took shape in the nation's imagination with the help
of those who wrote about it; but two groups who did much to shape
that perception are often overlooked today.
Promoters trying to lure settlers and investors to the West
insisted that the frontier had already been tamed-that the only
frontiers remaining were those of opportunity. Through posters,
pamphlets, newspaper articles, and other printed pieces, these
boosters literally imagined places into existence by depicting
backwater areas as settled, culturally developed regions where
newcomers would find none of the hardships associated with frontier
life.
Quick on their heels, some of the West's original settlers had
begun publishing their reminiscences in books and periodicals and
banding together in pioneer societies to sustain their conception
of frontier heritage. Their selective memory focused on the savage
wilderness they had tamed, exaggerating the past every bit as much
as promoters exaggerated the present.
Although they are generally seen today as unscrupulous
charlatans and tellers of tall tales, David Wrobel reveals that
these promoters and reminiscers were more significant than their
detractors have suggested. By exploring the vast literature
produced by these individuals from the end of the Civil War through
the 1920s, he clarifies the pivotal impact of their works on our
vision of both the historic and mythic West.
In examining their role in forging both sense of place within
the West and the nation's sense of the West as a place, Wrobel
shows that these works were vital to the process of identity
formation among westerners themselves and to the construction of a
"West" in the national imagination. Wrobel also sheds light on the
often elitist, sometimes racist legacies of both groups through
their characterizations of Native Americans, African Americans,
Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans.
In the era Wrobel examines, promoters painted the future of each
western place as if it were already present, while the old-timers
preserved the past as if it were still present. But, as he also
demonstrates, that West has not really changed much: promoters
still tout its promise, while old-timers still try to preserve
their selective memories. Even relatively recent western residents
still tap into the region's mythic pioneer heritage as they form
their attachments to place. "Promised Lands" shows us that the West
may well move into the twenty-first century, but our images of it
are forever rooted in the nineteenth.
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