America's Disorder: The Frontier, Violence, Cowboys, and Trump, w/ Richard Slotkin (G&R 322)

Richard Slotkin has written some of the more important books explaining the way Americans have created myths to justify slavery, repression, and empire, including "Regeneration Through Violence," "The Fatal Environment," and "Gunfighter Nation." His new book, "A Great Disorder," summarizes his previous ideas and take us to the present, with significant analyses of American from Reagan to the present, with ideas about the way Reagan and Bush in particular brought back the idea of the frontier and the cowboy to exploit and protect it. In our latest episode, we discussed with him the Obama years, his failure to tell a compelling story, and the culture wars and intensification of gun culture in response. And we spend a lot of time discussing Trump's use of old myths about violence and white supremacy to create a Confederate restoration project. Bio// Richard Slotkin is a cultural critic and historian. He is the Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Emeritus at Wesleyan University. He is author of numerous books around myth and narrative related to the American west, the frontier and American society in general. These include “Regeneration Through Violence,” the Fatal Environment” and "Gunfighter Nation." His newest book is “The Great Disorder:National Myth and the Battle for America.” ---------------------------------------------------------- Outro- "Green and Red Blues" by Moody Links// + Richard Slotkin: "A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America" (https://bit.ly/3zkApg0) Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠⁠ + Join our Discord community (https://discord.gg/uvrdubcM) Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠⁠ Our Networks// +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork +Listen to us on WAMF (90.3 FM) in New Orleans (https://wamf.org/) This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). Edited by Isaac.