Abstract

WHITE, Richard. Bands of fugitives in the Middle Border: the North-American social bandits. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2011, n.21, pp.33-59. ISSN 0121-8417.

In the late nineteenth-century Americans romanticized a small subset of Western outlaws as social bandits, who supposedly robbed from the rich, gave to the poor, and supported local communities and values. Understanding the local support given the James-Younger Gang in Missouri and the Doolin-Dalton Gang in Oklahoma Territory depends on an appreciation of the local context in which these gangs operated. Their larger appeal sprang from the cultural milieu of the period with its anxiety over the decline of male independence and masculine virtues.

Keywords : Outlaws; Social Bandit; Jesse James; Civil War; Maculine Virtue; Crime; American West; Doolin-Dalton Gang; James-Younger Gang.

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