Larger Than Life - Jenny Lyn Bader
At many times throughout the recorded history of man there has been a refocus of the academic, political and popular views of just what is meant by "how things are," or in some cases, how things were. The sort of maxims that many consider to be universal are not really so universal through time. In the article "Larger Than Life, " written by Jenny Lyn Bader just such a refocus is analyzed. Bader discusses the idea of the fall of heroism, which in modern times has been shifted to a more personal focus. Analyzing Bader's work through what in many ways is an apology the reader of the work gains much more clarity of the intent and inspiration of the very people Bader accuses. In a complimentary work, "New horizons for the American West." By Margaret Walsh, many answers to Bader's questions can be found.
At many points in Bader's text the culpability for this shift lies within the halls of academia, more specifically the culpability is associated with the introduction of holistic history. There are many names for the type of history that Bader speaks of, holistic, narrative, revisionist, and even contemporary. Regardless of the name used to describe the techniques being used by many modern historians, the intentions, hinted at in Bader's work remain the same, to provide modern man with the whole story. Bader, expresses this in her work: "...like everyone who crucified a superstar, these people thought they were doing a good thing. The professors and journalists consciously moved in a positive direction-toward greater tolerance, openness, and realism-eliminating our inspiration in the process." (Bader 10)
One analogy of the collective heroes that Bader speaks of is the frontiersman. In the contrasting article Walsh makes clear that through a relatively recent trend in history, one that attempts to include those excluded from the Euro-American...
(Walsh 1)
The American West had been won for the benefit of a wealthy democratic nation-state. This traditional West, whether read in academically researched monographs, general textbooks or novels, or whether viewed on the large or small screens, was primarily a EuroAmerican male experience, often highlighted through the achievements of cowboys, homesteaders, fur traders or the United States' army. (Walsh 1)
What these new historians have found is that women, Asians, African-Americans, Latinos, and many other non-cowboys were just as influential and industrious as those other more traditional heroic personages. (Walsh 1)
Additionally the concept which Bader explores through the disappointment of a child who might be unable to dress up as a cowgirl for Halloween because cowboys were really brutal and unfair: "They also broke the news that cowboys had brazenly taken land that wasn't theirs. I'm glad I didn't know that earlier; dressing up as a cowgirl for Halloween wouldn't have felt right." (Bader 7) Yet Bader also makes clear that the new history trend is a mixed blessing that somehow makes those in her and later generations feel cheated and lied to by the more traditional histories they have learned in school. "In a more urgent way I wish I had known it then so I wouldn't have to learn it now."
In fact much of Bader's work leads the reader to the conclusion that answers are not easy, that the new perspectives of the modern stray from traditional hero worship, to a more whole way of seeing people in history is a mixed blessing. Yet, new historians would protest that the concepts, heretofore unknown that have been discovered as foundational in the past are irresponsible to ignore. They would contend that the measure of influence that other cultures and genders have…
