1st Edition

Donald Trump in the Frontier Mythology

By Olena Leipnik Copyright 2023
74 Pages
by Routledge

74 Pages
by Routledge

74 Pages
by Routledge

This book explores the presidential image of Donald Trump as it is constructed by the media within American national mythology, precisely the frontier myth. By offering an account of three milestones in the development of the frontier mythology in its intersection with presidential imagery, the book shows how the image of Donald Trump fits into the line of "cowboy presidents," together with... Read more

Preface

  1. "The toughest guy in the office"
  2. The tough guy theme in politics

    Masculine politics and the origin of the tough

  3. Theodore Roosevelt: the becoming of the frontier and the arrival of the hero
  4. Performative frontier: staging the myth

    The enduring contradiction of myth

    The land and the man

    The man and the towners

    The girl: gendered opposition

  5. Ronald Reagan: extension of the frontier and inversion of the hero
  6. Myth gains primacy

    The exhauster of myth

  7. Donald Trump: recovered meanings of the frontier and resurgence of the hero
  8. Back to the beginning

    New scapes: cowboy goes metropolitan

    Myth continued

  9. Vladimir Putin: "stolen" meanings of the frontier and a supplementing hero  
  10. Here comes the villain

    "Is he one of us?"

Concluding thoughts

Biography

Olena Leipnik is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Sam Houston State University, USA.