A solid introduction to American pop culture history and the idea of The West and Frontierism that is so enmeshed with it. The colourful cover and accessible language makes this a great text for a hobby historian or first year students first learning the material.

I was a little disappointed in this book. I was expecting a deep conversation about the American frontier, but found the author really didn't deep dive into anything or add anything new to the conversation. Good for a quick overview but no much else.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I mainly read this book due to the parts the author discussed about Laura Ingalls Wilder. This book is a good introduction to Any novice reader who doesn’t have much depth or knowledge about the pop culture History of the American west and frontier. For deepler analysis and comprehension, I would encourage readers to dive into other tomes. Reagin only skated across the surface for her parts on Wilder, proffering scant knowledge and predictable extrapolations. Nothing new came to light in regards to people’s interpretations of Wilder that she included, just summaries of old conflicts and controversies.

I read the Little House on the Prairie books as a kid, and one of the things I could agree on with my mother was that, while fascinating, I did not find back-breaking subsistence work cute or fun, and resisted all Girl Scout attempts to dip candles, make outdoor ovens or wear bonnets, and never found Pa's assholish aversion to not-dirt floors charming. Later, I learned more about Rose Wilder Lane, and how the books picked up their very distinct political edge (and modern works that highlight the exploitation of the Osage people). Living in the Upper Midwest, I was baffled by people who would take vacations to Wilder tourist locations in South Dakota. Reagin examines the culture of fandom around Laura Ingalls Wilder in the US and Karl May in Germany (where, to get around the government, East German western fans remade themselves into an oddly performed solidarity movement with indigenous people while West Germans focused on rootin-tootin cowboys). Her big insight is to look at them, their merchandising, tourism, special events and online presence in parallel to other modern fandoms, rather than as historical re-enactors. This would be a great read for public history courses, regional tourism and memory studies, especially to understand the economic dependence of some small towns on putting forth a very specific, desired version of now contested "history."