U of R prof takes long view of 9/11 attack
U of R prof says modern conflicts based on 300-year-old tensions
According to a Regina author, the United States has been fighting the same war since its inception.
Mark Anderson, a Luther College history professor at the University of Regina, has completed his latest book, Holy War: Cowboys, Indians and 9/11s.
“The gist of it argues that the United States has been fighting the same war since the country was created,” he said Tuesday. “The model for that is a term used in the United States — not so much in Canada anymore — it’s kind of a good old-fashioned Indian war. Because the United States was born fighting aboriginal people and really fought them for nearly 300 years.”
He said the whole concept has become wired into American DNA.
“If you look closely at the media of the day, so that would be in the 19th century newspapers and magazines and in the 20th century, as time goes on you can find this (idea) in movies, presidential speeches and television even,” said Anderson. “The way it is portrayed in the media is that often, the conflicts the United States gets involved in, basically appear exactly like the Indian wars did 300 years ago.”
Anderson said people who study this phenomena refer to it as America’s creation story or its frontier myth.
In modern-day society, this myth is played out in popular westerns and movies like Avatar and Dances with Wolves.
Anderson said the book took about two years to complete but the idea for it began on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Everyone was pretty horrified and sickened by it, but because of my professional interests, I was interested in the way it was portrayed in the press and media during and immediately after,” he said. “So what the military did, of course, was it sought a violent military payback.”
The response reminded him of past wars like the Mexican-American War, the war against aboriginal people and the end of Lt. Col. George Custer in 1876 and a whole series of events in the 20th century.
“It was that idea that America was attacked without provocation by non-white-skinned savages — that is the story of the creation of America and that story is as old as America,” said Anderson.
He used old sources to support his theory, as well as new sources like movies, presidential speeches and television shows like The Walking Dead to show how this myth continues to circulate.
The book, published by UR Press, is available at the U of R book store and online.