The Hunter's Aim: The Cultural Politics of American Sport Hunters, 1880–1910

Abstract

American sport hunters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries “aimed” to reclaim the frontier past, to sanctify individualism, and to demonstrate their superiority to women and immigrants. Sport hunters, however, achieved ironic results. In proposing that hunting had made Americans great, hunters forgot that Americans had once attributed their greatness to farming. In protecting their sport as a rite of individualism, hunters gave new powers to government. In identifying their sport as a badge of ethnic superiority, hunters undermined hunting as a badge of sexual superiority. In demonstrating their imperial control over the world, hunters demonstrated their fear of a world out of control. At the same time, however, hunters bequeathed to modern Americans an important legacy: the conservation of game.