The West as slaughter bench

In contrast to narratives that see history as a series of revolutions, this chapter considers the history of the American West as what G.W.F. Hegel dismissively called a “slaughter-bench.” The chapter explores four ways that a community might find solidarity in reminding itself of its history of slaughter: as a field of creative destruction, as a site for martyrdom, as a ground of wildness and specificity, and as a prompt for shared responsibility. The chapter concludes that none of these provides a fully intelligible account of a community’s belonging-together but holds that their dialectical unfolding helps clarify what solidarity would require.