Call for Book Chapter Proposals: "Frontier Mythology and Poverty, 1885-1923: Regarding the Dark Side of the Progressive Era"

Frontier Mythology and Poverty, 1885 to 1923: Reading the Dark Side of the Progressive Era explores the complex relationship between the rise of frontier mythology and the acceptance of social inequality in America. This interdisciplinary collection explores how western mythology, spread through popular media, may have eclipsed late 19th-century movements for equity, such as the Knights of Labor's efforts to promote racial and gender equality, alongside workers' rights.

During this era, the mythic identity of rugged individualism 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, was 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.

In contrast to this understanding, the collection uncovers lesser-known counter-narratives that challenged the dominant frontier myth and may have promoted greater social equity. By juxtaposing these competing discourses, the book offers a nuanced view of how different cultural narratives shaped socioeconomic structures and mobility during this pivotal era.

While mythologies of the West have been analyzed by revisionist historians and literary scholars, and the social gains of the Progressive Era have been debated by economists, historians, and sociologists, a comprehensive study of the relationship between frontier mythology and social inequality during these years has yet to be undertaken.

Written in the spirit of Patricia Limerick’s The Legacy of Conquest (1987), it also argues the mythology of the West “keeps us from seeing where we are and how we got there” (323), forging a distorted link between the past and the present. By investigating a lost discourse on how these narratives may have influenced understandings of social equity during the Progressive Era, this collection seeks to build on Limerick’s work. The goal is to explore whether a more nuanced view of American history can emerge, potentially offering deeper insights into the complexities of the past and a clearer perspective on our present circumstances.

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By critically examining how mythologies of the West were both constructed and resisted during the Progressive Era, this work aims to understand its relationship to a national understanding of social hierarchies. Essays may explore how this mythology was invoked in discussions of gender, sexuality, race, and economic well-being. Alternatively, chapters may analyze cultural artifacts—such as books, plays, poetry, songs, and films—that challenged or critiqued these narratives, offering audiences a means of questioning frontier mythology from 1885 to 1923.

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

• Rhetorical analysis of frontier terminology found in government documents, literature, silent film or other texts used to describe and construct social order
• Alternative perspectives offered by socialism, nativism, Mormonism, and other movements
• Organizations, movements, and thematic concerns in dialogue with mythologies of the West (e.g., Children's Aid Society, Boy Scouts of America, muscular Christianity, Rags to Riches tropes), as well as critical engagement with works by national figures who either promoted or critiqued these myths (including Katherine Lee Bates, Cora and Thomas A. Bland, Henry George, George Bird Grinnell, Simon Pokagon, Zitkala-Ša, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Liliuokalani, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, George and Caroline Weldon, and Owen Wister.)

The collection invites 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.

Inquiries and Proposals:

• We welcome questions and preliminary discussions at any time
• Early Submission Deadline: October 1, 2024
  • Decision notification: November 1, 2024
• Final Submission Deadline: November 1, 2024
  • Decision notification: December 1, 2024

Chapter Drafts:

• Submission Deadline: June 1, 2025
• Note: All chapters 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.