Cowboys' Living Conitions And Influnece In The Pioneering Period Of America (1866-1885)

Although the golden age of'Livestock Kingdom'last about only twenty years from Civil War to the mid-1880s, it wrote a glorious chapter on American history. As the builders of'Livestock Kingdom', cowboys have exerted far-reaching influence on American economy, politics and culture even though they were brilliant for only twenty years. Cowboys contributed so much to Western development, however, people only see their glamorous side and ignore the hard work and the price of life they paid when they just entered this barren land. Therefore, the glorious images should be praised and the bitterness behind their strong and optimistic is also need to be learned.Cowboys not only create material wealth for the United States, but also have a great impact to American culture and spiritual civilization. Stories, music and movies about cowboys were published a lot. The image of cowboys has been created as a legend. The life of cowboys has been interpreted as romantic. Cowboy Culture has been handed down generation to generation. Cowboy Spirit became a symbol of the spirit of the American nation. Finally, cowboys became an immortal legend of America. The real life of cowboys has been exaggerated by the excessive worship of people to cowboys. Some negative elements like violence and pornography have been added into Cowboy Culture by the profit-driven of culture business. So it is necessary to learn the real life condition of cowboys for us to treat Cowboy Culture more dialectically. Meanwhile, we should treat Cowboy Spirits correctly, the positive elements of this should be learned, but the negative elements of racial discrimination and individualism should be abandoned.The historical background of cowboys appeared in large numbers after the Civil War is discussed in details in the first part of this paper, and explains that the appearance of cowboys is not an accident but based on the rise of'Livestock Kingdom'. The second part makes a detailed discussion of the living conditions of cowboys. This part is studied from cowboys'social relationship, work environment and entertainment in leisure times to recover the real life of cowboys as possible, and make people get to know about the difficulties and dangerous which fulfills the life of cowboys. In the third part, through a brief analysis of Cowboy Culture and Cowboy Spirit, makes people get to know that although Cowboy Culture is the most precious heritage which cowboys give to all human beings, people should treat it with dialectic attitude; although Cowboy Spirit has become a symbol of the American nation, people should treat it with advocated and abandoned attitude.In brief, this paper is undertaken to make people learn cowboys'real life from the investigation of Cowboys'living conditions and influence in the Pioneering Period especially after the Civil War. This paper could make people hold a correct view of Cowboy Culture and Cowboy Spirit. It also can be used for reference to the development of talents in China's Western Development.