Call for Book Chapter proposals: Frontier Mythology and Poverty, 1885 to 1923: reading the Dark Side of the of the Progressive Era

Editor Margie Judd invites book chapter proposals for a scholarly collection entitled, Frontier Mythology and Poverty, 1885 to 1923: reading the Dark Side of the of the Progressive Era, currently under consideration by Vernon Press.

In this collection, I am working against the taxonomy of the Progressive Era as a time of social progress. Instead, I am examining this period through the lens of western mythology and its influence upon earlier nineteenth-century visions of social equality that have been under studied. For example, the preamble to the Knights of Labor constitution advocated for racial and gender equity while suggesting workers own a “rightful share of the wealth they created.”

Such equity, however, was at odds with the mythic identity that was gaining an unshakable hold on the American imagination through Dime and literary novels, advertising campaigns, and silent film westerns that served to authorize continued imbalance on multiple levels. As marked by the phenomenal success of the silent film The Covered Wagon (1923) which eulogized the pioneering spirit, a simplistic understanding of the American frontier as the defining feature of American identity was firmly in place by the end of this time.

Also in place, is a broad acceptance of a permanent lower class as evidenced by the portrayal of the working poor in film alongside the public consensus, not to eradicate, but to clean up the slums. This collection is grounded in the question: What are the connections between the national acceptance of an impoverished class of workers and the rise of the frontier myth? While gender, racial, and economic inequality have been scrutinized by scholars through the lens of the Progressive Era, a comprehensive study addressing  frontier mythology’s role in making poverty palatable has yet to be conducted.

 In Legacy of Conquest (1987), Patricia Limerick argues the frontier myth “keeps us from seeing where we are and how we got there” (323) thereby forging a distorted link from the past to the present. By unearthing a lost discourse on the frontier myth and the ways it influenced understandings of social equity during the Progressive Era, I suggest we may gain insight into a truer history that will allow us to become more in tune with the complexities of American history.

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I am interested in essays exploring ways frontier mythology in the form of ideology and/or terminology may be found in conversations around gender, race, and economic inequality. In addition, I am interested in analyses of individual books, plays, poetry, songs, films, and other cultural artifacts that reflect a sensibility at odds with and/or providing the audience with a critical distance from frontier mythology during the years 1885 to 1923.

Essays are welcome on a wide range of topics, including any of the following:

• Rhetorical analysis of frontier ideology and/or terminology found in government documents, literature or other texts used to describe and construct social order
• Alternative perspectives, such as those offered by socialism, nativism, immigration, and Mormonism

• Parodic presentations of Frontier mythology
• Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in Western states
• Rags to Riches thematic concerns within Frontier mythology
• Critical analysis of specific authors or activists such as Henry George, Simon Pokagon, Zitkala-Ša, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Liliuokalani, Cora and Thomas A. Bland, and Caroline Weldon

I welcome both individual and co-authored pieces for chapters of 5000 to 8000 words. Please submit your 500-word proposal and a short author bio to Margie Judd via email at margieejudd@gmail.com by July 15th, 2024.

Timeline:
Proposal Deadline: July 15th, 2024
Acceptance/Non-acceptance notice: end of August 2024
Article submission deadline: January 30th, 2024 (articles will undergo peer review)

About the editor: Margie Judd, PhD, is an adjunct instructor in Core Humanities at University of Nevada, Reno. Her article, “Gunshots, Indian Scouts and Train Robberies: Frontier Mythology in William Dean Howells’ Hazard of New Fortunes appears in the August 2020 issue of Western American Literature.