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In Marriage, Violence and the Nation in the American Literary West, William R. Handley examines literary interpretations of the Western American past. Handley argues that although scholarship provides a narrative of western history that counters optimistic story of frontier individualism by focusing on the victims of conquest, twentieth-century American fiction tells a different story of intra-ethnic violence surrounding marriages and families. He examines works of historiography,as well as writing by Zane Grey, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner and Joan Didion among others, to argue that these works highlight white Americans' anxiety about what happens to American 'character' when domestic enemies such as Indians and Mormon polygamists, against whom the nation had defined itself in the nineteenth century, no longer threaten its homes. Handley explains that once its enemies are gone, imperialism brings violence home in retrospective narratives that allegorise national pasts and futures through intimate relationships.

American literature --- Novelists, American --- Domestic fiction, American --- National characteristics, American, in literature. --- Western stories --- Frontier and pioneer life in literature. --- Family violence in literature. --- Women pioneers in literature. --- Marriage in literature. --- Violence in literature. --- American novelists --- History and criticism. --- Homes and haunts --- West (U.S.) --- Intellectual life. --- In literature. --- Family violence in literature --- Frontier and pioneer life in literature --- Marriage in literature --- National characteristics, American, in literature --- Violence in literature --- Women pioneers in literature --- History and criticism --- Arts and Humanities --- Literature --- Domestic fiction [American ] --- National characteristics [American ] --- West [U.S.] in literature --- Cather, Willa Sibert --- Criticism and interpretation --- Stegner, Wallace Earle --- Didion, Joan --- Fitzgerald, Francis Scott --- Grey, Zane --- Wister, Owen --- Turner, Frederick Jackson