The American Cowboy: Myth vs. Reality

Historian Frederick Jackson Turner's famous essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" defines the "frontier" as a place of westward expansion with new opportunities, heroism, triumph and progress mainly by brave white men. While he writes that the "closing of the frontier" occurred with the extinction of the Western frontier and cowboy's character, Americans have found a way to glamorize the image of the cowboy in the west during the 1800's. It is …

…cattle ranchers in the West, American images of the cowboy have been a noticeably romanticized part of pop-culture from the early 1800's onwards. During times in history when the general consensus is that there are no real heroes to look to for guidance, "audiences sustained many of their 'faiths' by identifying with such admirable and powerful symbols of straight-forward righteous" (Rainey 6). To this day, many Americans continue to look towards cowboys as such a symbol.