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What is a dime novel?
The term 'dime novels' is typically (and in this case) used to describe a genre of short novels, massively popular amongst the American public from 1860 -1900, that were sold for roughly a dime (or even less!).
Not dissimilar to comic books as we know them now, these bite-sized stories were often only sections of larger, overarching plotlines. Dime novels would be released in small fragments, so after getting you hooked on one issue, you would be likely to return to buy next week's issue to know how the story continues.
While dime novels could cover any subgenre found in pulp fiction, from detectives to pirates, the most popular focus of this era was, by far and beyond, the Western.
Why were they so popular in the late 19th century?
There a number of reasons behind the dime novel spike that occured in 1860.
For one, there was the introduction of the steam rotary press. Around 1830, mechanical presses began to circulate all around the world, and would increase in accessibility more and more in the years to come. This allowed for more books to be made and sold, and for more literature to become available to the greater public.
On another, more important note, the late 19th century saw an overwhelming amount of economic growth, leading to a lot of despair for the average American citizen. Small businesses, once a hallmark of the nation, were swallowed by larger corporations and trusts. Likewise, more people began working for major companies, and were faced with poor wages and unsafe working conditions. A class division was quickly and thoroughly being set in place, and no one could do anything to stop it.
During this time, it was easy to feel hopeless against the machine – thus, many found comfort indulging in cheap, fantastical pulp fiction novels. Like a good show on TV, everyone was reading these hammed-up short stories, handing over nickels and dimes at the general store for their nightly entertainment. Dime novels were, perhaps, one of the few forces uniting a commonality between the wealthy and the working class.
But... why Westerns?
Media in pop culture is reflective of the society it's made in. The same goes for dime novel Westerns. I've talked in one of my posts about how the fictionalized Wild West has changed and grown to be it's own entity over time, and garnered popularity for what it's become, but originally, the Western genre revolved around America's idea of 'Manifest Destiny'. The phrase was based on Plato's philosophy, which foretold of holy, blessed land in the West. The idea of Manifest Destiny was that by conquering the West, Utopia could be created.
So, original Westerns based a lot around colonization, not cowboys and gunslingers. As the genre evolved, it gradually grew away from this idea, and people's interests grew with it. Yet even now, those original ideas (especially racist stereotypes created to push this ideology) can still be seen in a lot of Western media, and is important to think critically about.