Richard Slotkin, the Olin Professor of American Studies and English, emeritus, delivered a lecture on “Thinking Mythologically: Black Hawk Down, Platoon and the War of Choice in Iraq” April 24 in Powell Family Cinema. This was the inaugural lecture in the Richard Slotkin American Studies Lecture Series.
Slotkin’s classic American Studies histories include his award-winning trilogy, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860; The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890; and Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in the 20th Century; and also Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality. His novels include The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War, The Return of Henry Starr, and Abe: A Novel of Young Lincoln.Slotkin won Wesleyan’s Binswanger Award for Excellence in Teaching twice and is the founder of the American Studies Department. The lecture was sponsored by the American Studies Department. (Photos by Hannah Norman ’16)
Olivia Drake
Mike Mavredakis
Jeff Harder