The American West
To answer this final series of questions, you can select one of the images or films in this week’s material, or select outside material, and argue how it represents or presents inaccurate representations of the American West based on what you have learned throughout the course. Feel free to draw from any additional credible sources you find on the internet.
Develop your initial historiographer response of your selected topic by describing what historians, artists, television producers, film producers, musicians, and/or others have argued about it and how, or if, that argument has shifted over the years.
Please read the course materials for week 8 and then participate in this essay response to the 3 questions.
- What was life like for the Cowboy? What have you learned about their actual life, what is the myth, and what have historians said?
- What was the attraction of the American western movie during the Cold War and what has contributed to its lasting box office power? What are the myths presented and what have historians said?
- How were women and minorities depicted in western films during the 1950s and 1960s and why did the depiction begin to change in the 1970s? What are the myths presented and what have historians said?
