Little House on the Prairie: America’s Frontier Fantasies and the Clash of Civilisations

Netflix is set to release a new adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved frontier stories, revisiting Little House on the Prairie (1935). For nearly a century, these fictionalised accounts of life on the American frontier in the 1870s and 1880s have shaped a popular image of a certain place and time. But as the streaming giant prepares to unveil its version, the series reignites debates over race, history, nostalgia and America's enduring culture wars.

In moments of global suffering, Wilder's prairie seems to offer a vision of simplicity as an antidote to modern turbulence. Yet the real story of Wilder and her family was not so simple or wholesome. They experienced poverty