Table of Contents

Part I. 'My Friend, the Indian': Landscape and the Extermination of the Native American in the Silent Western: 1. Indians to the rescue; 2. The eastern Western; 3. Our friends, the Indians; 4. The death of the Western, 1911; 5. The far-Western; 6. Wars on the plains; 7. The politics of landscape; 8. Pocahontas meets Custer: The Invaders; 9. 'No Indians wanted'; 10. The west of the Mohicans; 11. Desert places; Part II. 'It's Time for Your History Lesson, Dear': John Wayne and the Problem of History in the Hollywood Western of the 1930s: 12. The Big Trail and the weight of history; 13. What's the big idea?; 14. Manifestations of destiny; 15. Rambling into Surrealism: the B-Western; 16. 'Don't cry, Pat, it's only a Western': A note on acting; 17. Time, space, and the Western; Part III. 'That Sleep of Death': John Ford and the Darkness of the Classic Western in the 1940s: 18. My Darling Clementine and the fight with Film Noir; 19. Out of the past; 20. 'Shakespeare? In Tombstone?'; 21. 'Get outa town and stay out'; 22. 'A lot of nice people around here'; 23. 'Who do we shoot?'; 24. The revenge of Film Noir; 25. The return of the Earps; 26. Ford, Fonda, and the death of the classic Western.