Synopses & Reviews
In this pathbreaking book one of Americaand#8217;s most distinguished philosophers brilliantly explores the status and authority of law and the nature of political allegiance through close readings of three classic Hollywood Westerns: Howard Hawksand#8217;
Red River and John Fordand#8217;s
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and
The Searchers.Robert Pippin treats these films as sophisticated mythic accounts of a key moment in American history: its and#8220;second founding,and#8221; or the western expansion. His central question concerns how these films explore classical problems in political psychology, especially how the virtues of a commercial republic gained some hold on individuals at a time when the heroic and martial virtues were so important. Westerns, Pippin shows, raise central questions about the difference between private violence and revenge and the stateand#8217;s claim to a legitimate monopoly on violence, and they show how these claims come to be experienced and accepted or rejected.
Pippinand#8217;s account of the best Hollywood Westerns brings this genre into the center of the tradition of political thought, and his readings raise questions about political psychology and the political passions that have been neglected in contemporary political thought in favor of a limited concern with the question of legitimacy.
Review
and#8220;Pippin's marvelous book is a more than worthy successor to the classic essays on the Western by Andrand#233; Bazin and Robert Warshow. This volume is remarkable for its clarity and depth of argument.and#8221;and#8212;George Wilson, University of Southern California
Review
"A trenchant and illuminating study of three great Westerns and a convincing case for their importance both to political psychology and to our own self-understanding as Americanandnbsp;citizens."and#8212;C. D. C. Reeve, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Review
andnbsp;"Robert Pippin's study of three great Westerns is a fine meditation on the place of heroism in democracy and the ambiguous relationship between legend and history in the making of heroes. It can stand with the best recent books on the Western as a genre, but it is driven by a thought all its own: the difficulty of the search for order, and the elusive 'possibility of an American politics.'"and#8212;David Bromwich, Yale University
Review
and#8220;Let me say straightaway that it is a very thoughtful, observant book, well worth the time for any reader who takes Hawks, Ford, and the Western seriously.and#8221;and#8212;
The New RepublicReview
"There's a strange moment near the end of John Ford's The Searchers, which, if you believe the argument of Robert Pippin's new study of the mythic narratives in classic Westerns, has much to say not just about the meaning of the film, but about the very nature of our political life. John Wayne, as Ethan Edwards, has just scalped Scar, the Comanche chieftain he has been tracking for the better part of seven years in search of his kidnapped niece. As Wayne exits the tent holding his trophy, Ford focuses on his face in close-up. His expression is a puzzle; it's supposed to be the punctuation mark on the scene, but instead it's an open door." Jacob Mikanowski, Bookslut (Read the entire )
About the Author
Robert B. Pippin is the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy, and the College at the University of Chicago.