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Leroy A Enck
Andrew Strombeck
Eng-420
20 January 2009
Slotkin’s Anglo-Saxon Access of Right to Violence in Red-Blooded Literature
In “Airstocracy of Violence,” Richard Slotkin examines works critically canonized from
the years 1895 to 1910, arguing their characteristics as indicative of conservative politics which
espouse a “strenuous” lifestyle. He traces the thematic evolution of the Anglo-Saxon “right to
violence” within literary, social, and political contexts, and highlights the justification contained
in the literary works he dubs “red-blooded fiction.” Slotkin argues the themes of “red-blooded
fiction” as an ideology affected real-world politics in which those of Anglo-Saxon decent control
a natural order, entitling them to hegemonic domination of others and a right to use violence to
preserve said hegemony.
Slotkin views “red-blooded fiction” as a literary reaction to “broad and emotional
sympathy, moral idealism, excessive “refinement” in sexual matters, and a distaste for violence
and conflict.” (157) In the world of “red-blooded fiction,” polite society (with its superfluous
gentility), ignored the struggle of peoples for control of society and access to limited resources.
Red-blooded fiction details male protagonists as they engage in manly frontier pursuits
showcasing their “natural” ability to flourish under such conditions. Such fiction redefines
masculinity as potent and virile, no longer dwelling in offices or cities, but instead expressing
itself through the trials of a strenuous lifestyle—stripped bare of effeminate pursuits.
Conflict arises when the specific expression of such masculinity is used to justify
“imperialism abroad and for the subordination of immigrant and Black labor at home.” (161)
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Under “Social Darwinism,” the most socially gifted race dominates society. The fact that AngloSaxons proved dominant in society could only be explained as an expression of the social “racegifts of pride, ambition, will and aptitude for violence.” (161) Protagonists of red-blooded
literature may possess varying qualities, but their success in the American West is ultimately an
expression of their race gifts.
Red-blooded fiction does little to categorize the race gifts of others, with the exception of
the Native American. Slotkin examines the works of Remington, London, and Garland. Such
works treat Native Americans as a force of nature characterizing the West, similar to the blizzard
or flood, and part of a “strenuous life” that may invigorate the virile male. These literary
examples detail the end of the Wild West, in which Anglo-Saxons could sally forth from the
emasculated and overdeveloped East Coast and realize their full racial potential. The closing of
the West, and the degeneration of native tribes, signals the loss of conditions under which the
Anglo-Saxon can fully express his potential to flourish. Such conditions “confirm the necessity
of vesting authority in a paternal elite whenever an inferior race of class is to be managed.” (169)
Slotkin identifies the social and political domination by the paternal elite, but does not
thoroughly address their right-to-violence until his examination of “The Virginian,” by Owen
Wister.
Providing enlightening background information on the author of “The Virginian,” Slotkin
addresses Wister’s genteel life in the east and his desire to leave the metropolis for the West.
Slotkin addresses Wister’s consternation in regards to “the ability of his own class to maintain its
power and values against the numbers and ambitions of the lesser breeds.” (170) Wister,
according to Slotkin, did not venture into the West in order to see the democratic expression of
all peoples capitalizing on opportunity; but rather, Wister sought confirmation to “his hopes for
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racial regeneration.” (171) Upon arriving in Wyoming, Wister is immediately inducted into a
social club comprised of wealthy Anglo-Saxon businessmen heavily vested in the cattle industry.
Wister translates his east coast social connections into a management job on a large ranch owned
by two of his Harvard classmates, further undermining upward-mobility theme in “The
Virginian.” Slotkin’s argument is further solidified by Wister’s own periodical-published
musings, which cite the awakening of the “primal racial vigor” (171) of the Anglo-Saxon when
confronted by the Western Frontier.
It is within the examination of “The Virginian” that Slotkin concentrates his argument of
the Anglo-Saxon race-right to violence. Slotkin summarizes references to democracy in “The
Virginian” as “not a value in itself but the means through which a naturally qualified ruling class
can make its way to the top. And once in place, the neo-aristocracy is entitled to maintain itself
by force.” (178) Vigilantism in “The Virginian” is presented as a justified means by which the
gentility preserves its expression of “civilization,” or hegemonic culture. Slotkin effectively
marries the justification of the use of violence by the paternal elite in “The Virginian” with the
crimes against humanity perpetrated by American expansionist policy in the Philippines. Slotkin
concludes with a transition from the frontier lynching of cattle rustlers in “The Virginian,” to the
justified Reconstruction-era lynching of freed slaves, and their descendents, in the South.
Slotkin builds a provocative case dispelling myths of the American Frontier perpetrated
by red-blooded literature. He peels away the romanticized images of the cowboy and
frontiersman canonized in early 20th century literature, taking with it the misleading images
reminiscent of “Little House on the Prairie.” In its stead, he provides a literary, social, and
political context for red-blooded literature revealing its true agenda: the preservation and
continuation of an Anglo-Saxon hegemony in The United States of America.
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Slotkin, Richard. Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-century America.
University of Oklahoma Press. 1998