The Mythic West in Twentieth-Century America

by Robert G. Athearn, Elliott West (Foreword)

Briefly describes life in the West, and discusses the ephemeral nature of the region, western towns, the tourist industry, agriculture, fiction, and the ecology movement

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

330 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Steve Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those of us that were born in the middle of the 20th century were reared on a vision of “The Old West” that was romantic myth. John Wayne movies and Louis L’Amour novels taught us that westerners were a special breed that tamed an untamed land.

Here Robert Athearn shows us how that West really didn’t exist, wasn’t really tamed, and didn’t spit out a special breed of democratically minded strong and independent people. Its history is far more complex and not nearly as flattering.

I read this shortly after reading L’Amour’s memoir “The Education of a Wandering Man” and Gary Wills’ “John Wayne’s America”. A bit earlier I read Burroughs, Tomlinson and Stanford’s “Forget The Alamo”. After these three I’ll never be able to look at the “Old West” the same again.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of essays by a well-known Western historian. He discusses how much of our concept of the "West" is real and how much is based on myth. He also gives a great history, chapter by chapter, of the Western states. This book caused me to come up with some new questions for my father regarding his father and farming during the Depression.