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Required Books and Films

Required Books:

  • James McPherson.  Into the West (ISBN 9780689865435)
  • David Lusted.  The Western (ISBN 9780582437364)
  • Richard Slotkin.  Gunfighter Nation (ISBN 9780060975753)

 Other readings will be posted on the password protected site and may include passages from:

  • Thomas Schatz.  Hollywood Film Genres
  • Henry Nash Smith.  Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth
  • Richard White.  It’s Your Misfortune and None of my Own and Railroaded
  • Coen Brothers screenplay.  No Country For Old Men
  • Patrick McGee.  From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western
  • Tompkins, Jane.  West of Everything
  • Limerick, Patricia.  The Legacy of Conquest
  • Owen Wister.  The Virginian
  • Mark Twain.  Roughing It

Films under consideration:

  • Stagecoach
  • Red River
  • The Searchers
  •  High Noon
  •  Shane
  • High Plains Drifter
  • A Fistful of Dollars
  • Dances with Wolves
  • Little Big Man
  • Buffalo Bill and the Indians 
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Unforgiven
  • McCabe and Mrs. Miller
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 
  • The Wild Bunch
  • Brokeback Mountain
  • Heartland
  • No Country for Old Men
  • True Grit (both versions)
  • Cold Mountain