Societal Influence

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the influence of legendary gunfighters, courage, self-reliance, ambition, community, and individualism in the Old West. The paper explains that they were all intertwined, for everyone shared a common view of the harsh challenges the Old West presented. The paper states that ambition, self-reliance and individualism were especially admired, regardless of whether they were demonstrated by law-abiding people or by gun-slinging criminals such as Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin and the Dalton Gang.

From the Paper:

"In Western frontier society, the influence of legendary gunfighters, courage, self-reliance, ambition, community and individualism were all intertwined, for everyone shared a common view of the harsh challenges the Old West presented. Ambition, self-reliance, and individualism were especially admired, regardless of whether they were demonstrated by law-abiding people or by gun slinging criminals such as Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin, and the Dalton Gang. (Utley 5) This frontier ethos still influences American society, and has gained increasing acceptance in recent years as resurgent conservative political, economic and social attitudes have begun to replace liberal values founded upon socioeconomic equality."

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