ABSTRACT
One of the most long-standing myths in American cultural history is the myth of the Frontier. The conflict between settlers and Indians, between “civilization” and “savagery” as well as the association of the Frontier with “empty” spaces providing unlimited opportunity and adventure was romanticized in countless dime novel Westerns and films. Frederick Jackson Turner, in his lecture on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” in 1893, perpetuated this myth, arguing that the Frontier and Western expansion were crucially important for the creation of American values such as democracy and individualism (see Chapter 6).
