This week Bill speaks with cultural historian and scholar Richard Slotkin. In his books, Slotkin writes about the myth of the frontier that has shaped our nations imagination ̶ and outlines how Americas frantic expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific led us to embrace a mythology of gun-slinging white settlers taming the wilderness to justify a tragic record of subjugation and bloodshed. “The myth holds. And it is stronger than the reality. Because those guns, particularly the Colt, are associated with one of the most active phases ̶ and most interesting phases ̶ of expansion. And therefore it has the magic of a tool ̶ the gun that won the west, the guns that created the American democracy and made equality possible.” ̶ Richard Slotkin
Posted on: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:10:01 +0000
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