makes that point early on, ". . . The End of the Myth” has a shadow theme. How is it, Grandin wants to know, that the symbol of America was once a boundless, beckoning frontier and today is a dark and forbidding wall?
The first person to articulate the frontier thesis was a University of Wisconsin historian who was little regarded at the time, Frederick Jackson Turner. In 1893, he read a paper on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” to a sleepy audience. No one asked a question. . . "
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When America’s Love of the Open Frontier Hit a Wall
By
Note about the author: Edward Dolnick has written books on the American West and many other subjects. He is currently working on a book about the Rosetta Stone.
THE END OF THE MYTH
From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
By Greg Grandin
369 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $30.
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The world quickly woke up. Turner’s idea was that the United States had been blessed by geographic good fortune. The seemingly infinite West would solve the problems that arose whenever too many people were jammed into too small a space.
The frontier, in Grandin’s summary, “would reduce racism to a remnant and leave it behind as residue. It would dilute other social problems as well, including poverty, inequality and extremism, teaching diverse people how to live together in peace.”
The appeal of the frontier myth was that it took problems in the “here and now” and shifted them to the “there and then.”
Grandin keeps his cool — he prefers the stiletto to the club — but he grows angrier as his history reaches the present day. “The frontier was, ultimately, a mirage,” he writes, because it promised “a limitless world” where “all could benefit; all could rise and share in the earth’s riches.”
The wall, on the other hand, is “a monument to disenchantment,” a deafening shout that “there’s not enough to go around.”
The wall stands as our new emblem, Grandin writes, and “it is a symbol of a nation that used to believe that it had escaped history, or at least strode atop history, but now finds itself trapped by history.” Disenchanted and bewildered, we have become, so Grandin contends, “a country that increasingly defines itself by what it hates.”
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Apr 6, 2019
Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, talked about immigration.
He spoke at the 2019 Annapolis Book Festival in Maryland
On C-SPAN >
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IS THIS THE END OF THE AMERICAN MYTH?
Published on Mar 25, 2019
Views: 4,871
Thom Hartmann reads from The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
From the publisher.
"Ever since this nation’s inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing a future of endless promise, it was the foundation of the United States’ belief in itself as an exceptional nation—democratic, individualistic, forward-looking. Today, though, America hasa new symbol: the border wall.
In The End of the Myth, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin explores the meaning of the frontier throughout the full sweep of U.S. history—from the American Revolution to the War of 1898, the New Deal to the election of 2016. For centuries, he shows, America’s constant expansion—fighting wars and opening markets—served as a “gate of escape,” helping to deflect domestic political and economic conflicts outward. But this deflection meant that the country’s problems, from racism to inequality, were never confronted directly. And now, the combined catastrophe of the 2008 financial meltdown and our unwinnable wars in the Middle East have slammed this gate shut, bringing political passions that had long been directed elsewhere back home.
It is this new reality, Grandin says, that explains the rise of reactionary populism and racist nationalism, the extreme anger and polarization that catapulted Trump to the presidency. The border wall may or may not be built, but it will survive as a rallying point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Book
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From the publisher.
"Ever since this nation’s inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing a future of endless promise, it was the foundation of the United States’ belief in itself as an exceptional nation—democratic, individualistic, forward-looking. Today, though, America hasa new symbol: the border wall.
In The End of the Myth, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin explores the meaning of the frontier throughout the full sweep of U.S. history—from the American Revolution to the War of 1898, the New Deal to the election of 2016. For centuries, he shows, America’s constant expansion—fighting wars and opening markets—served as a “gate of escape,” helping to deflect domestic political and economic conflicts outward. But this deflection meant that the country’s problems, from racism to inequality, were never confronted directly. And now, the combined catastrophe of the 2008 financial meltdown and our unwinnable wars in the Middle East have slammed this gate shut, bringing political passions that had long been directed elsewhere back home.
It is this new reality, Grandin says, that explains the rise of reactionary populism and racist nationalism, the extreme anger and polarization that catapulted Trump to the presidency. The border wall may or may not be built, but it will survive as a rallying point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Book
➡️Please Subscribe to Our Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
SUPPORT THE PROGRAM
► Join us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann where you can also watch a re-run of the three-hour program at any time
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► WEBSITE : http://www.thomhartmann.com
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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Thom Hartmann Program is the leading progressive political talk radio show for political news and comments about Government politics, be it Liberal or Conservative, plus special guests and callers
