Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

I. Myths of Reconstruction & the Gilded Age.

Myth of Reconstruction (Eric Foner).

The Lost Cause Myth in the New South Era (Charles Reagan Wilson).

The Agrarian Myth (Richard Hofstadter).

Frontierswomen: Myths and Realities (Glenda Riley).

Ten-Gallon Hero: The Myth of the Cowboy (David Brion Davis).

Andrew Carnegie and the Robber Baron Myth (Milton Goldin).

II. American Myths at Century’s End.

The Winning of the West and the Sioux: A Myth (Richard White).

Myths of the American West: Missionaries, Entrepreneurs, and New Identites (Patricia Nelson LimerickA).

Commanding Performance: Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Address (David Lionel Smith).

The Horatio Alger Myth (Carol Nackenoff).

Mythology and Workers’ Power (Herbert G. Gutman).

The ‘May Day’ Myth: The Emergence of the United States as a World Power (Patrick Gerster and Nicholas Cords).

III. Myths of Progressivism & the 1920s.

The Frontier Myth and Teddy Roosevelt’s Fight for Conservation (Leroy G. Dorsey).

Woodrow Wilson, Ethnicity, and the Myth of American Unity (Hans Vought).

Silent Cinema as Historical Mythmaker (John Hope Franklin).

The Myth of the Disillusioned American Soldier (David M. Kennedy).

What Sadie Knew: The Immigrant Working Girl and the Emergence of the Modern Young Women (John McClymer).

The Mythic Meaning of Lindbergh’s Flight (John William Ward).

IV. Myths of Politics & Foreign Affairs.

The Lengthening Shadow of FDR: An Enduring Myth (William E. Leuchtenburg).

The Myth of New Deal Radicalism (Paul K. Conkin).

The Myth of the Good War (Richard Polenberg).

The Myth of the Placid 1950s (Robert D. Marcus).

The Kennedy Myth (Herbert S. Parmet).

‘With One Hand Tied Behind Their Back’ … and Other Myths of the Vietnam War (Robert Buzzanco).

The Frontier Myth and the Reagan Presidency (Richard Slotkin).

The Myth of Deterrence and the End of the Cold War (Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein).

V. Social Myths of Modern America.

The Myth of the Feminine Mystique (Joanne Meyerowitz).

Mythology and the Charismatic Leadership of Martin Luther King (Clayborne Carson).

The Chicano Image and the Myth of Aztlan Rediscovered (John R. Chavez).

Streets of Gold: The Myth of the Model Minority (Curtis Chang).

Revolution in Indian Country (Fergus M. Bordewich).

Myth, the Melting Pot, and Multiculturalism (Carl N. Degler)

About the Author

Patrick Gerster is Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at San Jose City College.