How the West Was Fun

This article discusses the important role that juvenile literature played in creating America's frontier mythos. It argues that children were a crucial audience for adult authors seeking to justify and normalize settler colonial policies. But, more importantly, young people themselves were active participants in the perpetuation of a popular culture that glorified westward expansion and the eradication of Indigenous peoples. In acknowledging as much, we arrive at a richer understanding of the important intersections between western history and the history of childhood in the United States

Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Frontier · Indigenous · Juvenile · Political science · Sociology · American and British Literature Analysis · American Literature and Culture · Ecology · Gender Studies · History · Themes in Literature Analysis

• Children Saving Children

  Open Access•Emmanuel Destenay•Modern American History•2023

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  Laura Soderberg•American Literature•2024

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