The educational value of Red Dead Redemption II: analyzing law and order, environmental pollution, and tuberculosis in Rockstar's blockbuster video game

Abstract

Released in 2018, Red Dead Redemption II (RDR2) is a video game set at the demise of the American frontier that explores historical themes such as racism, environmental pollution, Indigenous communities, capitalism, corruption, Manifest Destiny, and more. As of 2026, RDR2 is the third best-selling video game of all time. Production on the game began in 2010 following the release of its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption (RDR). The eight-year development cycle permitted designers ample time to ensure RDR2 is historically accurate to its setting of 1899, though some discrepancies exist. The game’s open world features five states representative of American cultures and climates with environments, weaponry, transportation, and technology allowing the player to experience life at the end of the nineteenth century. In 2021, RDR2 became the subject of a college course at the University of Tennessee Knoxville taught by Tore Olsson, a professor of the American South. Called “Red Dead America,” his class examines the violence and dilemmas presented in RDR2 through an academic lens. This thesis expands on Olsson’s work in arguing for the efficacy of RDR2 as a mode of “edutainment” (educational entertainment) by utilizing primary and secondary sources to analyze the historicity of three facets of the game—law and order, environmental pollution, and tuberculosis—and their roles in the settlement of the American West.