American Experience/Social Sciences
American Frontiers and Borderlands
HSS 502, Fall 2000
Professor Catherine Lavender    ||    The College of Staten Island of CUNY

Course Texts

Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
Adapted from The Chicago Manual of Style, which is the standard form for the social sciences and History.

Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)

The classic statement of the "Frontier Thesis," which posits that American national distinctiveness lies in the existence of the Frontier.
Questions to Consider

Richard Slotkin, "The Significance of the Frontier Myth in American History," from Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (1992)

A discussion of the impact of the "Frontier Myth" on American culture, by one of the leading scholars of the "Frontier."
Questions to Consider

Mary Rowlandson, The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682)

The classic "captivity narrative" of a Puritan woman taken captive by Indians in the 1670s.
Questions to Consider

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

The statement of American grievances against the English government and King George which also delineates the foundations of American political philosophy.
Questions to Consider

The Constitution of the United States of America (1789)

The legal document which formed the United States, and which, along with the Declaration of Independence, forms the foundation for American political philosophy.
Questions to Consider

Thomas Jefferson, "Instructions to Lewis and Clark" (1803)

President Jefferson's instructions to Meriwether Lewis as he sent Lewis and William Clark out to explore the Louisiana Purchase.
Questions to Consider

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, selections, from The Journals of Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)

The record of Lewis and Clark's exploration of the interior of what would become the United States of America.
Questions to Consider

Henry David Thoreau, selections, from Walden (1854)

Thoreau's account of his life at Walden Pond in Connecticut, where he retreated to study Nature.
Questions to Consider

James Fenimore Cooper, selections from The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

A novel of the American Renaissance which depicted the "noble savage" concept in national terms.
Questions to Consider

Lydia Maria Child, selections from Hobomok (1824)

A novel by abolitionist and social reformer Lydia Maria Child which examines a marriage between an English woman and an Indian man, Hobomok.
Questions to Consider

Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), selections from "Impressions of an Indian Childhood" (1900)

One of the memories of Yankton Sioux writer and social reformer Zitkala-Sa, originally published in Atlantic Monthly.
Questions to Consider

Bret Harte, selections from "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and Other Short Stories (1870)

Several of Harte's famous "Frontier genre" stories, which helped to foster images of the frontier community as lawless and fluid.
Questions to Consider

Mark Twain, selections from Roughing It (1891)

Twain's account of his travels throughout the West by stagecoach, which built on earlier stories by Harte.
Questions to Consider

Thomas Edison, Parade of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (film) (1898)

The film which Thomas Edison used to demonstrate his filmmaking system for the U.S. Patent Office: a parade of William Cody's show.
Questions to Consider

William Cody, The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (film) (1914)

Excerpts from Cody's autobiographical film, depicting his heroic feats in "settling the Frontier."
Questions to Consider

Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery (film) (1903)

The first "Western," made by Edison's chief cameraman, Edwin S. Porter.
Questions to Consider

John Ford, Stagecoach (film) (1939)

A classic film by Ford (the master of the "Western Film"), providing the standard elements of the Western, including the presence of John Wayne.
Questions to Consider

Mary Austin, selections from Land of Little Rain (1903)

Austin's celebration of the Mojave Desert, as well as a Modernist commentary on the American Southwest.
Questions to Consider

Robert Johnson, Crossroad Blues and Others (1936)

Mississippi Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson's recordings, in which he recounts his fabled trading of his soul for his music; draws on rich African and American traditions which became the Blues.
Questions to Consider

Peter Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson (1989)

Guralnick's attempt to examine the life of foundational Blues musician Robert Johnson, famous for his distinctive and revolutionary musical style, and infamous for the mysterious circumstances of his life and death.
Questions to Consider

John Steinbeck, The Harvest Gypsies (1936)

Steinbeck's articles for the San Francisco News, chronicling the plight of Dust Bowl emigrants and other agricultural workers in Depression California.
Questions to Consider

John Steinbeck, selections from The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Steinbeck's classic novel/expose of the life of Dust Bowl emigrants, built around the story of the Joad family.

Questions to Consider

John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath (film) (1940)

Ford's film version of Steinbeck's novel, with a very different (hopeful and uplifting) ending.
Questions to Consider

Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles (1950)

Bradbury's science fiction novel of the American colonization of Mars, a Cold War era commentary on Frontiers and Borderlands.
Questions to Consider

Herbert J. Biberman, The Salt of the Earth (film) (1953)

America's only black-listed film; tells the story of a Zinc mine strike in New Mexico, shedding light on class and ethnic struggles in the borderlands region.
Questions to Consider

John Ford, The Searchers (film) (1956)

Ford's rumination on the classic Western formula, as well as his commentary on Civil Rights and racial bigotry.
Questions to Consider