SOURCE: "Will Rogers, American Adam," in Imagemaker: Will Rogers and the American Dream, University of Missouri Press, 1970, pp. 70-87.

In the following essay, Brown examines Rogers's use of the "rugged individualist" philosophy in his work.

Will Rogers was dedicated to the vision of man as being intrinsically worthy. Growing up as he had in a new country in which there was no overcrowding to cheapen human life, living as the king of creatures in that new country, and being himself the unique product of the mixing of New and Old World cultures, he could reasonably be expected to value the unique individual. If such a dedication to the worth of the individual might be called American innocence, Rogers often combined with it a sidelong, wise glance that made him the wise innocent. Comments resulted such as that expressing belief in the generosity and goodness of the American people...