Why did the cowboy (not a soldier, not a hunter) become a national hero?

In the mythology of the American frontier, the central opposition is between the land and the man. The land represents challenge, opportunity, danger, and promise at once. As this opposition develops, the frontier hero becomes the figure who moves continuously between wilderness and settlement, never fully belonging to either side.

Unlike the soldier, who serves society, or the hunter, who remains outside it, the cowboy crosses the frontier repeatedly as part of everyday life. He connects the transforming land with the emerging community, and because of this position between two worlds, he becomes the symbolic carrier of the national character.

In frontier mythology, the land itself is gendered as a mother, a virgin territory, a provider, and the space of opportunity. The hero’s masculinity is therefore measured not against other men but against the scale of the land itself, which gives the frontier hero his mythic dimension and makes him a figure capable of representing the nation as a whole.

This argument is developed in chapter 2 ofDonald Trump in the Frontier Mythology.