The Old West?

Question:What lessons are to be learned from the American Old West? How do popular portrayals differ from reality?

Is it a viable thesis to compare the Chivalric ideals of the rough and tumble middle ages with those of Frontier America?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: What lessons are to be learned from the American Old West? How do popular portrayals differ from reality?

Is it a viable thesis to compare the Chivalric ideals of the rough and tumble middle ages with those of Frontier America?

I suppose you already know that the gunfights were seldom face downs in the street. Most pistoliers would have used any option to kill their opponent before they could kill them.

The cowboy wasn't always a white man, often he was an African American, a Mexican American or a native American.

The period of the cowboy era is only from about 1866, when Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving took their herd from Texas to the railhead in Kansas, to about 1880 or 1890, when the drives were much shorter because rail lines were much nearer and it doesn't pay to run the weight off your steers.

The comparison to the Chivalric ideals of the middle ages might be a good one if you remember that those ideals are just that, ideals, something one would strive for, but not necessarily attain.

You could try thinking of Chivalry as a diet of good manners, entered into with the best of intentions, but not always easy to stick to.