Inventing the Wild West: Nostalgia, Folklore and Fakelore

While the historical Wild West existed for only a brief window roughly between 1865 and1890, its legacy has grown into a towering myth of ruggedness and individualism. This multidisciplinary study peels back the layers of this romanticized era to reveal how nostalgia and media manufactured a mythic West that overshadowed reality. By examining the influence of pulp literature, television, and Wild West shows, it illustrates how the cowboy evolved from a historical figure into an idealized he...