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Name: The End of the Myth
Rating: 3.6 (30 reviews)
Author: Greg Grandin

Greg Grandin

From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

3.6 (30 ratings)

31 mins

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Race

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The End of the Myth
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What’s in it for me? Learn how the myth of the American frontier has dictated the nation’s foreign and domestic policies.

If you’re familiar with the American Western genre, you’ve probably seen the iconic image of the cowboy riding off into the sunset at the end of the film. The West has always held an important promise of hope and renewal in the American consciousness. Out west, you could start over, stake a new claim, and get another chance at the American dream.

But somewhere along the line, the myth of the ever-expanding frontier came to an end, and according to author Greg Grandin, the end of this myth goes hand in hand with a sinister idea of America on which Trumpism has thrived: the idea that prosperity and resources are limited and should be available only to a select number of people. These blinks provide an insight into this idea.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how American ideals shifted under Andrew Jackson;
how the southern border of the US has always been a deadly place; and
how Vietnam and the War on Terror finally put an end to frontier thinking.

Prosperity has been linked to frontier expansion since America’s earliest days.

There has been a lot of speculation and theorizing on the subject of Trumpism. How did American politics arrive at Trump’s message of antimigrant wall-building and isolationism?

You might think Trump’s extreme nativist attitudes came from out of the blue, but, in fact, they can be traced back to America’s formative years. One of Trumpism’s most compelling arguments is that opportunities for prosperity are not limitless, not everyone can share in that prosperity, and government policy should reflect this reality.

The Trump administration didn’t invent this idea, but there’s a reason why it’s relevant now – perhaps more than ever. It all comes down to the myth of the American frontier.

The key message here is: Prosperity has been linked to frontier expansion since America’s earliest days.

When British settlers first arrived on the east coast of what would become the United States of America, there was a sense of unprecedented space. The question was, what would the settlers do with it all?

There were, of course, Native Americans – or Indians, as they were called – living on this land. So in 1763, a Royal Proclamation came down from Britain’s King George III. In it, he drew a line down the Alleghenies (now called the Ozark Mountains) and said that everything to the west of the mountain range belonged to the Indians. Of course, in 1776, Americans broke free from British rule, and there was little debate as to whether the Royal Proclamation still carried any authority. It didn’t.

Very early on, the nation’s success was directly linked to expansion. One of the Founding Fathers, James Madison, saw the vastness of the United States as a stabilizing force. Madison recognized that among the country’s citizens were people of different religions and values. So the first step to keeping America stable and prosperous would be to have its people see this diversity as one of the country’s great virtues. Then, in order to keep this potentially combustible diverseness from exploding, the second step would have to be expansion. Like-minded folks would naturally congregate and form their own communities, and with enough space between them, these communities would be able to live in harmony.

Madison’s plan seemed viable in theory. But in the early United States, there was also the founding principle of equality to consider. The issue of the lives and rights of Native Americans, Mexicans, and freed peoples would, throughout the years, test Madison’s vision that diversity and expansion were the keys to peaceful coexistence.

Jacksonian principles made small government and individual freedoms a priority.

While there were some, like Alexander Hamilton, who had doubts about continued expansion, few would, or could, stop the progression. Even before the 1763 proclamation was discarded, farmers and settlers were crossing boundaries, claiming land – and then seeking protection.

So the United States continued to expand its frontiers – first to the Mississippi River, and then well beyond it with the purchase of Louisiana from the French in 1803. Each time, questions arose about the treatment of the Native peoples who lived on the land the United States was rapidly gobbling up.

The US military became both a tool for endless expansion and a means of uniting a divided nation.

What comes to mind when you hear the words “safety valve”? In the early 1800s, the steam engine was still being perfected. The safety valve was an exciting new development designed to release built-up steam in an engine. If used properly, the safety valve could turn steam-powered boats into safe transportation rather than the exploding death traps they were commonly known to be.

Suddenly, the term caught on with the press. “Safety valve” became a go-to metaphor for many writers and journalists. Every policy developed to alleviate tension of any sort in the United States – whether among different ethnic and cultural groups or people of different socioeconomic classes – was referred to as a “safety valve.” Expansion was a safety valve. Slavery was a safety valve. Even the rape of female slaves by slave owners was explained as a safety valve to keep white southern women safe. And then there was the most momentous safety valve of all: war.

The frontier myth was flawed from the start.

The mythology around the American frontier is due in large part to a man named Frederick Jackson Turner. He came up with what is known as the Frontier Thesis in the closing years of the nineteenth century.

Up until then, the word “frontier” had mostly been used to describe a country’s border or the frontlines of a military campaign. Turner brought a new, more abstract meaning to the word, right around the time when mainland America’s national borders were finally settling permanently.

America’s uneasy history with social democracy changed during the Great Depression.

America’s attempts at progressive social programs have generally been short-lived. After the American Civil War came the Reconstruction effort. At its center was the Freedmen’s Bureau, which aimed to support freed slaves and help rebuild the war-torn South. To W. E. B. Du Bois, the Freedmen’s Bureau was the “most extraordinary and far-reaching institution of social uplift that America has ever attempted.” But many southerners, including politicians, balked at the idea of treating African Americans as equal citizens. The Bureau closed in 1872 with little fanfare after just seven difficult years.

Likewise, various Homestead Acts designed to distribute land fairly to willing farmers didn’t last. Critics of these programs called them prime examples of governmental overreach. But then came the Great Depression.

Vietnam did not ease national tensions or unify the country – and then Reagan reaffirmed American individualism.

Roosevelt’s social programs did help the nation recover and grow stronger. But there were still plenty of Jacksonian Americans and politicians who despised the idea of all this big-government “socialism.”

As it turned out, following World War Two, America’s economy rebounded to become better than ever. This economic upswing, and Roosevelt’s death, meant that many of the New Deal programs were shuttered. The frontier focus this time would be on reaching new economic heights.

A new brand of vigilantism emerged as horrors along the Mexican border escalated.

The border between the United States and Mexico has always been a place of horrific violence. In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, entire villages were decimated by American soldiers, who committed horrific war crimes, sparing neither men nor women nor children.

Horrors along the border, however, were not limited to wartime. For a while, there was little in the way of walls, fences, or law enforcement of any kind in the area. It was only after World War One that significant security measures began to be put in place along the border. These measures did little, however, to keep migrants out of the United States – or to keep them safe from US vigilantes.

NAFTA and the war on terror ultimately failed to address fears of a diminished frontier.

During Reagan’s time in office, border agents continued to kill and injure migrants. In San Diego, vigilante gangs donned masks, cruised in their cars, and shot Mexicans on sight. Between 1982 and 1990, there were at least 24 protests demanding that the US State Department do something about these murders, but little changed.

In the 1990s, a new president, Democrat Bill Clinton, pushed forward the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), designed in part to improve relations between Mexico and the United States. But it only increased desperation south of the border.

The debacle of the war in Iraq put a permanent end to the myth of the ever-expanding American frontier.

For hundreds of years, expansion was key to American prosperity. James Madison believed that abundant space would keep the diverse population of the United States from civil conflict. And Turner’s Frontier Theory claimed the country’s continued expansion would guarantee that Americans left their violent or racist impulses behind.

For years now, expansion of any kind has been relatively stagnant. The myth that America’s frontier could grow perpetually and serve as an inspirational horizon has died. Previous generations avoided confronting some of their baser impulses through attempts at ideological expansion and the distractions of external wars. The result? Violence and racism have pooled at America’s southern border and been left to fester.

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What is The End of the Myth about?

The End of the Myth (2019) offers a revealing look at how America’s frontier mind-set has guided and protected the nation through its troubled history. You’ll see how the expansion of that frontier has served to keep fundamental problems of racism and inequality from being dealt with and find out if the myth of the American frontier has finally died.

Best quote from The End of the Myth

Madison knew that wealth could destroy virtue by dividing society into opposing factions: those who hold and those who are without.

—Greg Grandin

Who should read The End of the Myth?

History buffs interested in the legacy of the United States
Anyone outraged at the mistreatment of migrants at the Mexican border
Students of political science and sociology

About the Author

Greg Grandin taught at New York University before joining Yale University’s history department. He’s also served on the United Nations Truth Commission and received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library. His books include The Empire of Necessity and Fordlandia, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.

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