K.P.Kollenborn

by  Thomas J. DiLorenzo   This article appeared in the  Fall 2010 issue of   The Independent Review Contrary to popular perception, the Old West was much more peaceful than American cities are today. The real culture of violence on the frontier during the latter half of the nineteenth century sprang from the U.S. government’s policies toward the Plains Indians. The Not-So-Wild, Wild West In a thorough review of the “West was violent” literature, Bruce Benson (1998) discovered that many historians simply  assume  that violence was pervasive —even more so than in modern-day America—and then theorize about its likely causes. In addition, some authors assume that the West was very violent and then assert, as Joe Franz does, that “American violence today reflects our frontier heritage” (Franz 1969, qtd. in Benson 1998, 98). Thus, an allegedly violent and stateless society of the nineteenth century is blamed for at least some of the violence in the United States today.

Nearly 70 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into World War II, Japanese-American soldiers receive the country’s highest civilian honor. by BARBARA MARANZANI Almost immediately after the December 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, the loyalty of all those of Japanese descent living in America, regardless of their citizenship status, was called into question. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the War Department to establish military zones in much of the western United States. Under this order, residents with “Foreign Enemy Ancestry” could be placed under surveillance, detained and even relocated by military fiat. Few Americans of European ancestry were detained under this order, which was primarily directed at those of Japanese descent. Eventually, more than 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the U.S. mainland were forcibly removed and i