Projecting America - (The Popular West) by Patrick Adamson (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Projecting America, the first-ever book on these silent epic Westerns, Patrick Adamson demonstrates how these films indelibly impacted the genre, historical filmmaking, and Hollywood, inviting audiences to accept uncritical visions of Manifest Destiny as accurate history.

Book Synopsis

In the mid-1920s, the heyday of silent film, the epic Western swept Hollywood and the nation. Movie moguls sought to add gravitas to their output with the productions--films they argued offered American audiences authentic history and lessons in citizenship at a time when Hollywood faced criticism for its movies' morals and star scandals. Initially extremely popular, these now nearly forgotten Westerns were hailed by the movie industry's proponents and critics alike for their "authentic" reconstruction of America's nineteenth-century frontier period and the social benefits in portraying historical episodes foundational to American identity to the melting pot of moviegoers. In Projecting America, the first-ever book on these silent epic Westerns, Patrick Adamson demonstrates how these films indelibly impacted the genre, historical filmmaking, and Hollywood, inviting audiences to accept uncritical visions of Manifest Destiny as accurate history.

Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and punctuating his argument with film stills and intertitles, Adamson introduces readers to a variety of epic Westerns, with a particular emphasis on The Covered Wagon (1923), The Iron Horse (1924), and The Vanishing American (1925). These productions depict such key moments as pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples. Combining close analysis of these films' historiography with exploration of their production and reception, Adamson investigates how the epic Western's emergence responded to and informed discourses far beyond those traditionally associated with the Western genre. He demonstrates that these movies not only represent an important chapter in film history but also collectively illustrate how American identity was formed and the motion picture medium was used as a vehicle for mass historical and cultural education.

In Projecting America, Adamson deftly shows how epic Westerns, at the heart of the 1920s' pressing debates about cinema's social influence, are integral to a broader understanding of the history of Western films and American identity.

Review Quotes

"Adamson's illuminating work rectifies the academic conversation that tends to grant the silent epic Westerns of the 1920s a cursory glance at best. He has discovered a singular cycle of films whose content sought to address several cultural anxieties while also allowing Hollywood's studios to assert their own historiographical authority and claim a sense of cultural legitimacy."--Dr. Lee Broughton, author of The Euro-Western: Reframing Gender, Race and the 'Other' in Film


"Ambitious and exceptionally well-written. Adamson shows how these mostly forgotten silent Westerns were crucial to Hollywood's attempts to prove that it could uplift society by providing unifying national narratives. Long overlooked, these films are vastly important to our understanding of the development of film culture, particularly film's path from low-grade entertainment to a respectable and educational art form."--Paul McEwan, author of Cinema's Original Sin: D.W. Griffith, American Racism, and the Rise of Film Culture