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The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
villagebooksmith's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
5.0
It’s impossible to sum up this book into a review, if you believe in ‘American exceptionalism’ you will hate this book, as it confronts that myth with the bloodied and exploitative history of America. This book is intense but really well done, showing the violence of manifest destiny, and how the US was created through exploitation not only of the indigenous populations of the Americas and their displacements, and African Americans through slavery, but exploitation of the land itself.
The limitless potential of the unsettled frontier is a metaphor for American growth and development. As long as there were new lands to dominate and settle, there was no need to look inward at the systems being created to protect newly acquired property. Growing the desire to continue domination and expansion, under the guise of freedom. Once that land was accumulated, the states looked elsewhere, utilizing war as a tool of colonization. With the vision always to new frontiers, there was never a need for a reckoning within the states, but over time as Americans developed disillusionment with never ending wars, Trump redirects that goal of expansion to the goal of preservation, and the creation of the border wall to stoke American’s resentments of people in central and South America looking to immigrate to the US.
Some quotes -
“The Jacksonian consensus was powerful. It unleashed market capitalism by stealing Indian property and celebrated a minimal state, even as it increased the capacity of that state to push the frontier forward. During the first half of the nineteenth century, until Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, a series of Jackson’s successors continued to unite slavers and settlers under a banner of freedom defined as freedom from restraint - freedom from restraints on slaving, freedom from restraints on dispossessing, freedom from restraints on moving west. As they did, the nation’s sene of morality became dependent on outward movement: the virtuous commonweal was defined as expansion and the common woe was anything that stood in the way of expansion.” (P. 96)
“The principles of what came to be called libertarianism aren’t new and can indeed be traced back to the Jacksonian period, to Andrew Jackson’s definition of a federal government reduced to ‘primitive simplicity,’ or back further, to Madison’s belief that ‘diversity’ is the source of virtue and wealth. Modern libertarians updated these ideals. With Truman integrating the military, and the Supreme Court ruling that school segregation was not legal, some feared that the expansion of federal authority seemed unstoppable. Libertarians, in response, sought to use the penalizing power of the market to stem the tide.” (P. 189)
“The nation was founded on the idea that expansion was necessary to achieve and protect social progress. Over the centuries, that idea was realized, again and again, through war. Extending the vote to the white working class went hand in hand with Indian removal; the military defeat of the Confederacy by the Union Army didn’t just end slavery, but marked the beginning of the final pacification of the West, with the conquered frontier continuing as an important basis of Caucasian democracy.” (P. 205)
“But in a nation like the United States, founded on a mythical belief in a kind of species immunity - less an American exceptionalism than exemptionism, an insistence that the nation was exempt from nature, society, history, even death - the realization that it can’t go on forever is bound to be traumatic. This deal of freedom as infinity was only made possible through the domination of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans, as slave and cheap labor transformed stolen land into capital, cutting the tethers and launching the U.S. economy into the stratosphere. And now, as we fall back to a wasted earth, the very existence of people of color functions as an unwanted memento more, a reminder of limits, evidence that history imposes burdens and life contracts social obligations.
And so the wall offers its own illusions, a mystification that simultaneously recognizes and refuses limits. On the one hand, Trumpism fuels resentment that the United States has been too generous, that in a world of scarcity ‘we can’t take care of others if we can’t take care of our own,’… On the other hand, Trumpism encourages a petulant hedonism that forbids nothing and restrains nothing - the right to won guns, of course, but also to ‘roll coal,’ for example, as the rejiggering of truck engines to burn extraordinary amounts of diesel is called. The plume of black smoke emitted by these trucks is, according to such hobbyists, a ‘brazen show of American freedom’ - and, since 2016, a show of support for Donald Trump. Pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord will do little to boost corporate profits, as many have pointed out, but it has everything to do with signaling that the United States will not submit to limits. In a world as fragile as ours, such displays of freedom become increasingly cruel, until cruelty itself becomes a ‘brazen show of American freedom’ - lifting restrictions on killing hibernating bears, say, or pardoning Joe Arpaio, or extolling torture.” (P. 173)
The limitless potential of the unsettled frontier is a metaphor for American growth and development. As long as there were new lands to dominate and settle, there was no need to look inward at the systems being created to protect newly acquired property. Growing the desire to continue domination and expansion, under the guise of freedom. Once that land was accumulated, the states looked elsewhere, utilizing war as a tool of colonization. With the vision always to new frontiers, there was never a need for a reckoning within the states, but over time as Americans developed disillusionment with never ending wars, Trump redirects that goal of expansion to the goal of preservation, and the creation of the border wall to stoke American’s resentments of people in central and South America looking to immigrate to the US.
Some quotes -
“The Jacksonian consensus was powerful. It unleashed market capitalism by stealing Indian property and celebrated a minimal state, even as it increased the capacity of that state to push the frontier forward. During the first half of the nineteenth century, until Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, a series of Jackson’s successors continued to unite slavers and settlers under a banner of freedom defined as freedom from restraint - freedom from restraints on slaving, freedom from restraints on dispossessing, freedom from restraints on moving west. As they did, the nation’s sene of morality became dependent on outward movement: the virtuous commonweal was defined as expansion and the common woe was anything that stood in the way of expansion.” (P. 96)
“The principles of what came to be called libertarianism aren’t new and can indeed be traced back to the Jacksonian period, to Andrew Jackson’s definition of a federal government reduced to ‘primitive simplicity,’ or back further, to Madison’s belief that ‘diversity’ is the source of virtue and wealth. Modern libertarians updated these ideals. With Truman integrating the military, and the Supreme Court ruling that school segregation was not legal, some feared that the expansion of federal authority seemed unstoppable. Libertarians, in response, sought to use the penalizing power of the market to stem the tide.” (P. 189)
“The nation was founded on the idea that expansion was necessary to achieve and protect social progress. Over the centuries, that idea was realized, again and again, through war. Extending the vote to the white working class went hand in hand with Indian removal; the military defeat of the Confederacy by the Union Army didn’t just end slavery, but marked the beginning of the final pacification of the West, with the conquered frontier continuing as an important basis of Caucasian democracy.” (P. 205)
“But in a nation like the United States, founded on a mythical belief in a kind of species immunity - less an American exceptionalism than exemptionism, an insistence that the nation was exempt from nature, society, history, even death - the realization that it can’t go on forever is bound to be traumatic. This deal of freedom as infinity was only made possible through the domination of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans, as slave and cheap labor transformed stolen land into capital, cutting the tethers and launching the U.S. economy into the stratosphere. And now, as we fall back to a wasted earth, the very existence of people of color functions as an unwanted memento more, a reminder of limits, evidence that history imposes burdens and life contracts social obligations.
And so the wall offers its own illusions, a mystification that simultaneously recognizes and refuses limits. On the one hand, Trumpism fuels resentment that the United States has been too generous, that in a world of scarcity ‘we can’t take care of others if we can’t take care of our own,’… On the other hand, Trumpism encourages a petulant hedonism that forbids nothing and restrains nothing - the right to won guns, of course, but also to ‘roll coal,’ for example, as the rejiggering of truck engines to burn extraordinary amounts of diesel is called. The plume of black smoke emitted by these trucks is, according to such hobbyists, a ‘brazen show of American freedom’ - and, since 2016, a show of support for Donald Trump. Pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord will do little to boost corporate profits, as many have pointed out, but it has everything to do with signaling that the United States will not submit to limits. In a world as fragile as ours, such displays of freedom become increasingly cruel, until cruelty itself becomes a ‘brazen show of American freedom’ - lifting restrictions on killing hibernating bears, say, or pardoning Joe Arpaio, or extolling torture.” (P. 173)
marydith's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Honestly the main thing I took away from this is that the US has always been just as horrible in every period of its history as it is right now, and there have always been people fighting to make it better. Which is equal parts terrifying and weirdly comforting.
highspeed's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
"The End of the Myth," authored by Greg Grandin, is an insightful exploration into the concept of the frontier as an instrumental political tool throughout the entire breadth of American history. The author takes the reader on a journey, tracing the evolution and manipulation of this concept, particularly under the era of Trump.
The book is a detailed narrative that unfolds the way the myth of the frontier, initially associated with endless opportunities, cheap land, and freedom, has been contorted and reshaped to emphasize scarcity and protectionism in the Trump era. This shift is embodied in the idea that we have to protect what is ours, a stark contrast to the traditional myth of endless growth.
Grandin posits that the frontier once acted as a vent for extremism; without it, such extremism turns inward, leading to a surge in internal conflicts and societal tensions. This notion is one of the key points the author emphasizes, offering a unique perspective on the current political climate in America.
The book is a valuable read for politicians who have a keen interest in history, as it provides a historical lens through which current political ideologies and strategies can be understood. It's also beneficial for those interested in understanding how historical concepts and myths can be manipulated to serve contemporary political agendas.
Overall, "The End of the Myth" serves as a critical commentary on America's political evolution and the instrumental role of the frontier myth in shaping this trajectory.