This episode delves into why colonization occurs, looking to the structure of the world economy for answers and applying this lens of analysis to the two classic westerns Red River and My Darling Clementine
Concepts:
Colonization
Core and periphery
Never-ending expansion
Capitalism
The safety valve
Race
The usable past
Sources:
For more on the early history of colonization:
Tan, Fidellithy. The History of Colonization. Podcast audio. https://open.spotify.com/show/2GgKjR09jep79DkU74xUH9?si=c979cb1f07db46da
For more on present-day colonization of Latin America:
Bartilow, Horace A. Drug War Pathologies: Embedded Corporatism and U.S. Drug Enforcement in the Americas. University of North Carolina Press. 2019.
For more on the safety valve:
Grandin, Greg. The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. Metropolitan Books. 2019.
For a different analysis of Red River and My Darling Clementine:
Corkin, Stanley. Cowboys, Free Markets, Wyatt Earp, and Thomas Dunson. In Cowboys as Cold Warriors: The Western and U.S. History. 19-50. Temple University Press. 2004.
