Cultural History Commons^™

Seeing The Past: Jesse James And American History In Motion Pictures, Clinton S. Loftin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An Abstract of the Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (in History) May, 2000 Historically-based films often reveal more about the time in which they were made than about their historical subjects. Three motion pictures about Jesse James made in three very different eras reveal more about contemporary history than they do about the facts surrounding the legendary outlaw’s life. While each film, in some way, purports to tell the “true” story of Jesse James’ life, each offers a different history of that life. In order to understand the reasons for …