"We Want Americans Pure and Simple": Theodore Roosevelt and the Myth of Americanism

Issues of immigration and assimilation have always troubled the national psyche, with the native-born and immigrants wondering what it means to be an American. Theodore Roosevelt attempted to shape those issues, attempts that still resonate today in the public consciousness.1 This essay examines the mythic themes of Roosevelt's discourse in his narrative history The Winning of the West to explain how he used the Frontier Myth to lionize the immigrant in American culture. Moreover, the essay illuminates how his discourse not only provided a primer to immigrants about the expectations of American culture, but also worked to lessen the anti-immigrationist impulse.