NCJ Number
139389
Journal
Media Studies Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1992), 151-162
Date Published
1992
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This author uses the story of how Wyatt Earp and his two brothers defeated three outlaws in a gunfight at the O.K. Corral to illustrate the history of conflict between antagonistic social forces in what he terms the Western Civil War of Incorporation.
Abstract
On one side of that war was the conservative consolidating authority of capital led by the forces of industry, finance, business, and land enclosure. Opposing them were dissident and outlaw forces of violent resistance. These outlaws valued bonds of kin and custom more than the modern principles of law and order. Because academic historians have largely avoided researching the subject of outlaws and gunfighters, a mythical interpretation of Western heroism has arisen. This type of narrative, perpetuated in novels and movies, reveals Americans' ambiguity about established power and dissident protest. The popularity of figures including Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy, and, on the other hand, Earp, demonstrate the great appeal that the dissident social bandit and the conservative mythic hero both have to many Americans.