The Creation of the Cowboy Hero

Download or read book The Creation of the Cowboy Hero written by Jeremy Agnew and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-12-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As business interests have commercialized the American West and publishers and studios have created compelling imagery, the expectations of readers and moviegoers have influenced perceptions of the cowboy as a hero. This book describes the evolution of the cowboy hero as a mythic persona created by dime novels, television and Hollywood. Much of our concept of the cowboy comes to us from movies and the book's main focus is his changing image in cinema. The development of the hero image and the fictional West is traced from early novels and films to the present, along with shifting audience expectations and economic pressures.