The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Greg Grandin's Pulitzer Prize winning The End of the Myth is a masterful history, and is worthy of every American's attention.
Even before the United States was founded the original British colonies had undefined western borders. When the colonies went to war with Britain and the new nation was formed, it began with internal tensions and dichotomies - the largest dichotomy being the proclamations both that all men are created equal, and that one man could own another.
Grandin's book shows how the open frontier acted as a safety valve to externalize the internal conflicts of the nation outward to the frontier. Once the frontier finally ended at the border those conflicts have turned inward on America and are the basis for the tensions in the country today.
I have to say that I thought I understood American history before reading this book, but it is clear to me now that I did not. The War with Mexico, and the later Spanish-American war always seemed like such small pieces of the story. But in Grandin's telling they loom much larger, and help explain some of the Trumpian tensions in America today.
This book is a must read for anyone who has struggled to understand where Trumpism has come from, or who hopes it will "just go away" now that Trump is out of office. Highly recommended.
The End of the Myth links
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