Mythologies

Four myths dominated U.S. ideology in the 19th century. Myths of white victimization, capitalist progress, the frontier, and the ″self-made man″ shaped how many Americans thought about themselves. These ideas lay at the heart of ruling class justification for settler colonialism, the expansion of racial slavery, and the development of the capitalist market system. They became the basis for the transition to U.S. global imperialism.

This interdisciplinary study explores how literature in that...