Buffalo Bill and Disney

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Buffalo Bill and Disney

More than seventy years after Buffalo Bill “taught” the history of the West to a curious nation, Disneyland embarked on a strikingly similar course. Relying on creative marketing, star appeal, the American fascination with all things western, and, most important, an exceedingly glib portrayal of history, Disneyland in a strange way completed the story that Buffalo Bill started in 1883. Although the eras, to be sure, were decidedly different, history was delivered in exactly the same way.

The west is an idea that has always fascinated the American people. Buffalo Bill was the first to understand the salability of this concept with his endearing, albeit distorted road show of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Wild West Show was an attempt by Buffalo Bill, or William Frederick Cody, to capitalize on his reputation as someone that conquered the “savages” and freed the West for American expansion and the continuation of its supposed manifest destiny. The themes of his show were simple, straightforward, and easy for Americans of the era to remember: The west was won with necessary violence; that the tool of the frontier hero was the rifle; that Americans were the victims who ultimately prevailed in a violent struggle; that the moral truth of the frontier, indeed America, was that violence was good for the U.S. and necessary to tame a savage frontier. In general, the history explored in the Wild West Shows was romantic, glamorous, and whitewashed. This message resonated with a population largely isolated from frontier life. As a group, America was becoming increasingly urban and connected by rail, telegraph, and canals—but, ironically, confused over the west and what it all meant. Whether i...

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...conomic history, the Populists were influential far beyond their Electoral College count or the legislation posthumously passed. The Populists of the 1890s may have lost the battle, moreover, but to historians, they paved the way for political and economic reform. If radical reform groups learn from the Populists mistakes and mobilize workers in the north as well as the south and west, they, we, may win the war as well.

The Populists embody the contradictions and spirit of the west as we have learned in this class. Their spirit should not be buried in some blind belief in historical destiny. Events would have been different had the Populists reached out successfully to the worker of the north. Perhaps, someday, a group will do this and unify the plethora of splinter groups waiting for their opportunity to voice their opinions like the Populists in the 1890s.

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