In a thorough review of the “West was violent” literature, Bruce Benson (1998) discovered that many historians simply assume
that violence was pervasive—even more so than in modern-day America—and
then theorize about its likely causes. In addition, some authors assume
that the West was very violent and then assert, as Joe Franz does, that
“American violence today reflects our frontier heritage” (Franz 1969,
qtd. in Benson 1998, 98). Thus, an allegedly violent and stateless
society of the nineteenth century is blamed for at least some of the
violence in the United States today.
In a book-length survey of the “West was violent” literature, historian Roger McGrath echoes Benson’s skepticism about this theory when he writes that “the frontier-was-violent authors are not, for the most part, attempting to prove that the frontier was violent. Rather, they assume that it was violent and then proffer explanations for that alleged violence” (1984, 270).
http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=803
In a book-length survey of the “West was violent” literature, historian Roger McGrath echoes Benson’s skepticism about this theory when he writes that “the frontier-was-violent authors are not, for the most part, attempting to prove that the frontier was violent. Rather, they assume that it was violent and then proffer explanations for that alleged violence” (1984, 270).
http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=803
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