Slotkin, Richard 1942–

(Richard S. Slotkin, Richard Sidney Slotkin)

PERSONAL: Born November 8, 1942, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Herman and Roselyn B. Slotkin; married Iris F. Shupack (a clinical social worker), June 23, 1963; children: Joel Elliot. Education: Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, B.A., 1963; Brown University, Ph.D., 1967. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Office—American Studies Program, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459. Agent—Carl D. Brandt, Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER: Historian, educator, and writer. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, assistant professor, 1966–73, associate professor, 1973–76, professor, 1976–82, Olin Professor of English, 1982–, director of American studies, 1976–.

MEMBER: American Studies Association, American Association of University Professors (chapter president, 1979–80), Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, Authors Guild, American Film Institute, PEN, Society of American Historians (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS: Albert Beveridge Award, American Historical Association, 1973, and National Book Award nomination, both for Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1973–74; honorary M.A., Wesleyan University, 1976; Rockefeller Foundation fellow, 1977–78; Little Big Horn Associates literature award, 1986; finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction, 1993, for Gunfighter Nation; Mary C. Turpie Prize, American Studies Association, for teaching and program development, 1995; Don D. Walker Prize; Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction, 2001, for Abe.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with James L. Folsom) So Dreadfull a Judgment: Puritan Responses to King Philip's War, 1675–1677, Wesleyan University Press (Hanover, NH), 1978.

The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1980, reprinted with foreword by James M. McPherson, Holt (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

The Return of Henry Starr (novel), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1988.

(Author of foreword) Eric Greene, Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture, Wesleyan University Press (Hanover, NH), 1998.

Abe (novel), Holt (New York, NY), 2000.

Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, Holt (New York, NY), 2005.

"FRONTIER" TRILOGY

Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860, Wesleyan University Press (Hanover, NH), 1973.

The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1985.

Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1992.

Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including American Quarterly, Popular Culture, Journal of the West, New York Times Book Review, Newsday, Life, and Saturday Review.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard Slotkin has won praise for both his books of history and his historical fiction. Slotkin's childhood fascination with the "Wild West" led him to examine the popular theories of its effect on society's development. In Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860, which began as his doctoral thesis at Brown University, Slotkin challenges the prevailing views of Henry Nash Smith, whose work is considered integral to American studies. "Smith was right when he said the frontier was a key myth in shaping the American culture," Slotkin told Publishers Weekly contributor Robert Dahlin, "but he also got things wrong." Slotkin identified race and violence, issues ignored by Smith, as significant to the Caucasian settling of the American west. "Ignoring the pursuit of white supremacy allows Americans to feel more democratic than they are," Slotkin remarked to Dahlin, "and in the era of Vietnam and the civil rights movement, that struck me as very interesting. I decided that I would fill in the blanks."

Regeneration through Violence, a finalist for the National Book Award, is the first in Slotkin's trilogy of works exploring the frontier. The second book, The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, focuses on what Dahlin called "the social and historical settings that influenced and were influenced by the U.S. population's inexorable and often ruthless move west." In the New York Times Book Review, Roger D. McGrath found that The Fatal Environment encourages readers to ask: "In what way are today's complex issues reduced to the most inane and oversimplified terms—terrorists, freedom fighters, savages, heroes—in an effort to evoke unthinking reactions that are rooted in a culturally ingrained myth?" McGrath determined, "Some may argue with the author's conclusions or even with his assumptions," but he added: "Most will have to admit that Mr. Slotkin makes a very important contribution."

In Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, the final work in the trilogy, Slotkin examines the Western genre of American films. He discusses the impact of these films on Americans, and he draws parallels between the perception of the lawless West and modern U.S. foreign policy. "Westerns from 1939 to 1950 portrayed heroes who acted within the law," Slotkin told Dahlin, "but after 1950, with the Cold War under way, lawmakers lost confidence in the people who voted for them. And just like the movies, we got the vigilante ethic, which has been a critical ideology motivating political leaders." Those political leaders, Slotkin noted, "think through scenarios." He added: "To imagine a solution, they draw on the heritage of available stories." The solutions that those stories provide have influenced U.S. behavior in conflicts including Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War, according to Slotkin.

Slotkin began The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War as a break from his nonfiction work. This story explores the racially motivated destruction of a black battalion during the Civil War. Reviewing The Crater in the Los Angeles Times, James Kaufmann suggested that Slotkin "has researched too thoroughly, served history too well," and he attributed this allegedly excessive research to the difficulty of switching from historical nonfiction to fiction. According to Kaufmann, The Crater is evidence that Slotkin "found the siren song of history too seductive."

Slotkin's second novel, The Return of Henry Starr, chronicles the life and death of bank robber Henry Starr, nephew of the notorious outlaw Belle Starr. Unlike Kaufmann, who found Slotkin's first novel the work of a historian rather than a novelist, John Byrne Cooke, writing in the Washington Post Book World, described The Return of Henry Starr as an accomplished work of fiction. "Perhaps Slotkin found that mastering academic prose was necessary to his university career," Cooke remarked, but "as he makes dramatically clear [in Henry Starr], the poetic voice is the one that comes from the heart." Cooke added: "This is no eastern intellectual describing a time and place he has read about in books. This is the work of a man who has the rhythms of the American language and untold chapters of the American story in the marrow of his bones."

Slotkin is also the author of Abe, a novel about Abraham Lincoln's early life. Among the key episodes in the novel is Lincoln's flatboat journey to New Orleans down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The novel also relates Lincoln's efforts at self-education and his pursuits as a ferryman and a dispenser of medicine. During the course of the novel, Lincoln encounters historical personages, including Francis Wright and Junius Brutus Booth, and he meets an assortment of gamblers, criminals, and professionals. Kevin Baker, writing in the New York Times Book Review, described the novel as "a rich, satisfying coming-of-age story," and he called Slotkin "a strong and resourceful writer." In addition, the critic declared that "Slotkin is also good at depicting the awe-inspiring quality of the American landscape," and stated that "Slotkin's evocations of the natural world are gripping." A Publishers Weekly contributor, who likewise noted Slotkin's debt to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, acknowledged Slotkin's "fine wit and inventiveness as well as years of research into American frontier life." The Publishers Weekly contributor characterized Slotkin's Lincoln as "funny, robust, a rough and tumble lad who longs to live on a greater stage." Booklist contributor Brad Hooper, meanwhile, summarized Abe as "an authentic immersion into the young Lincoln's experiences." Writing in the Library Journal, John Carver Edwards noted that Abe constitutes "an enthralling read."

In Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, Slotkin provides another look at an aspect of American history that has been largely ignored by other historians. Focusing on the forgotten black American soldiers who fought in World War I, specifically the Harlem Hellfighters, and recent American immigrants who joined the American armed forces, Slotkin recounts their battlefield heroics, noting how the French at one point withdrew the bloodied black troops of one regiment from the front lines and awarded all of them the Croix de Guerre. The author also explores how and why these brave black and immigrant soldiers were largely forgotten by an America that emphasized the heroics of its homegrown white troops. "Solid work, as is Slotkin's custom, and of much interest to students of American history and ethnicity," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Patti C. McCall, writing in the Library Journal, noted that the author presents a "comprehensive, well-researched work, using a multitude of sources." Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor referred to Lost Battalions as a "scholarly analytic history."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of Abe, p. 1456; November 15, 2005, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, p. 17.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2005, review of Lost Battalions, p. 1070.

Library Journal, December, 1999, John Carver Edwards, review of Abe, p. 189; November 1, 2005, Patti C. McCall, review of Lost Battalions, p. 98.

Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1980, James Kaufmann, review of The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War.

New York Times Book Review, January 4, 1981, Geoffrey C. Ward, review of The Crater, p. 9; May 5, 1985, Roger D. McGrath, review of The Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, p. 14; September 27, 1987, review of The Fatal Environment, p. 50; April 2, 2000, Kevin Baker, "Log Cabin Values," p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, December 28, 1992, Robert Dahlin, "Richard Slotkin: In His Nonfiction Trilogy, He Examines Our National Myth of Conquering the Frontier," pp. 49-50; January 3, 2000, review of Abe, p. 58; October 3, 2005, review of Lost Battalions, p. 62

Washington Post Book World, August 7, 1988, John Byrne Cooke, review of The Return of Henry Starr, p. 10.