This section contains 3,952 words (approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page) |
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SOURCE: "History as Melodrama: Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West," in The American West: An Appraisal, edited by Robert G. Ferris, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1963, pp. 201-10.
In the following essay, Lewis explains his reasons for considering The Winning of the West a failure both as literature and as history.
The incongruity of Harvard-educated Theodore Roosevelt in the Bad Lands of North Dakota has been the source of numerous stories. As one of his biographers said: "His somewhat precise tones still flavored by exposure to Harvard culture rang strangely in [the ears of westerners]. He did not smoke or drink. His worst profanity was an infrequent 'Damn!' and his usual ejaculation was 'By Godfrey!' The first time he took part in a round up, sometime during the summer of 1885, one or two hardened cowboys nearly fell from their saddles as he called in his...
This section contains 3,952 words (approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page) |
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