According to American History, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its
Way has been reproduced in more American histories than any other picture by
Currier and Ives. Stereotypically contrasting “primitive” Native hunters and
fishers with bustling white settlers, the picture suggests that progress doomed
the Indian, so we need not look closely today at the process of dispossession.
But no, the lack of intellectual excitement in these books is most pronounced
at their ends. All is well, the authors soothe us. Just keep on keepin’ on. No
need to ponder whether the nation or all humankind are on the right path. No
need to think at all. Not only is this boring pedagogy, it’s bad history.
Nevertheless, endings like these are customary.
As usual, such content-free unanimity signals that a social archetype lurks
nearby. This one, the archetype of progress, bursts forth in full flower on the
textbooks’ last pages but has been germinating from their opening chapters.
For centuries, Americans viewed their own history as a demonstration of the
idea of progress. As Thomas Jefferson put it:
Let the philosophical observer commence a journey from the
savages of the Rocky Mountains eastwards towards our