Recent debates concerning the nature and extent of violence on the US frontier are
evaluated with regard to the legacy for contemporary American violence and foreign
policy. It is argued that the myth of a Minuteman-Gunfighter Nation has its roots in
20th-century politics and ideology, while the real legacy of the frontier was
inter-ethnic violence and hatred as well as social inequality and class conflict,
which were part and partial of a continuity of conquest before and after 1890. The
resulting mixture of class warfare, gender roles, religious identity, political
ideology and financial interests has made the United States the most socially
polarized and violent of post-industrial countries.
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