Re-Living the American Frontier

Western Fandoms, Reenactment, and Historical Hobbyists in Germany and America Since 1900
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60938-790-7
Verlag: University of Iowa Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 363 g

Reihe: Fandom & Culture

The historic and mythic elements of the American Old West—covered wagon trains, herds of buffalo, teepee villages, Indigenous warriors on horseback, cowboys on open ranges, and white settlers “taming” a wilderness with their plows and log cabins—have exerted a global fascination for more than 200 years and became the foundation for fan communities who have endured for generations. This book examines some of those communities, particularly German fans inspired by the authors of Westerns such as Karl May, and American enthusiasts of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series.

But the Old West (like all visions of the past) proved to be shifting cultural terrain. In both Germany and the U. S., Western narratives of white settlement were once seen as “apolitical” and were widely accepted by white people. But during the Nazi period in Germany and in East Germany after 1945, the American West was reevaluated and politically repurposed. Then, during the late twentieth century, understandings of the West changed in the U. S. as well, while the violence of white settler colonialism and the displacement of Indigenous peoples became a flashpoint in the culture wars between right and left. Reagin shows that the past that fans seek to recreate is shaped by the changing present, as each new generation adapts and relives their own West.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Reagin, Nancy

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur

Über Autor(innen)

Nancy Reagin is professor of European history and gender studies at Pace University in New York City. She is author of A German Women’s Movement: Class and Gender in Hanover, 1880–1933. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.