Laura Ingalls Wilder has become one of our most recognizable frontier figures, beloved for her autobiographical children’s novels and known worldwide, thanks to the long-running and popular television show based on Little House on the Prairie. In a lecture sponsored by the Center for Western Lands and Peoples at Montana State University, Caroline Fraser describes both the myths and the realities of the life of Ingalls Wilder, arguing that she has come to embody our fondest — and perhaps least examined — fantasies about the history of the American West: white settlement and the homesteading movement. But her work actually wove a powerful mythology around her childhood, leaving out or reimagining the harsher realities her family faced. Now, as Ingalls Wilder’s reputation evolves and elements like her stereotypical views of American Indians are reevaluated, Fraser says that reading the “Little House” books can offer insights into our own yearning to interpret a complex past in a positive light.

Caroline Fraser was introduced by Susan Kollin, Director of MSU’s Center for Western Lands and Peoples.

Recorded at the Ellen Theatre in Bozeman on November 5, 2018.