A review by zachfeece34
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
5.0
This is a challenging, but incredibly thought provoking read. I felt so many things click into place for me throughout this book.
Greg Grandin crafts a narrative wide in scope, spanning the entirety of America's history. His thesis here is that throughout its history, the United States has relied upon an ever expanding frontier to serve as a "safety-valve" for its social problems, particularly those of race and class. Instead of confronting these issues head on, the country has been able to push conflict outward onto the "free real estate" in the West and the people who lived there. An example of this can be seen in the spread of capitalism on the East coast. As capitalism took root in America, it forced relatively independent small-holders into market relationships where they had to rely on wages to survive. This was, and remains, an incredibly alienating experience. Many were able to escape this "wage-slavery", as they called it, by moving out West onto land taken from the Native Americans by the Federal government and sold to them for cheap. This alternative to the toils of capitalism allowed Americans to avoid confronting the labor question that their counterparts in Europe could not. This offers an explanation for why the United States never developed a labor party like every other developed capitalist country, and why the social democratic impulse has always been so stunted here. A large part of that comes from the antisocial conception of freedom that frontier life provides.
The presence of the endless frontier created a unique conception of freedom and what it means to be "American". The ideology of the American settler is one of freedom without restraint, to live as limitless as the frontier stretching out before them. An important aspect of this worldview is to be able to dominate without restraint as well, whether that be stripping the land of resources, or enslaving and killing other people. Grandin describes Andrew Jackson and the Jacksonian political tradition that came after him as the blueprint of freedom defined as limitless domination. It is the freedom of the master, the boss, the petty tyrant. This political strain can be seen throughout various reactionary movements in the country's history, notably in the modern conservative movement.
After highlighting the importance of the frontier throughout American history, Grandin comes to the present moment. What happens when the frontier is closed? What happens when endless expansion becomes impossible? Where do all those violent impulses that found a release in the borderlands go? Grandin believes they turn inward. This is what Donald Trump represents to him. The reactionary strain of settler colonial ideology has run out of frontiers to dominate, and now looks inward for enemies to blame. Trumpism is the limitless conception of freedom finally recognizing the limits of the world, and instead of facing those limits with a newfound sense of social responsibility or solidarity, chooses unrestrained hedonism for themselves, and barbaric domination for everyone else. Fortress America. Towards the end of the book, Grandin goes into detail on the various right-wing vigilante and paramilitary groups that have sprung up around the Mexican border over the past thirty years, whose goal is to "protect the border from immigrants." He provides a quote from one of these vigilantes that I think sums up what happens when the frontier comes home, "Build the wall and start shooting."
Greg Grandin crafts a narrative wide in scope, spanning the entirety of America's history. His thesis here is that throughout its history, the United States has relied upon an ever expanding frontier to serve as a "safety-valve" for its social problems, particularly those of race and class. Instead of confronting these issues head on, the country has been able to push conflict outward onto the "free real estate" in the West and the people who lived there. An example of this can be seen in the spread of capitalism on the East coast. As capitalism took root in America, it forced relatively independent small-holders into market relationships where they had to rely on wages to survive. This was, and remains, an incredibly alienating experience. Many were able to escape this "wage-slavery", as they called it, by moving out West onto land taken from the Native Americans by the Federal government and sold to them for cheap. This alternative to the toils of capitalism allowed Americans to avoid confronting the labor question that their counterparts in Europe could not. This offers an explanation for why the United States never developed a labor party like every other developed capitalist country, and why the social democratic impulse has always been so stunted here. A large part of that comes from the antisocial conception of freedom that frontier life provides.
The presence of the endless frontier created a unique conception of freedom and what it means to be "American". The ideology of the American settler is one of freedom without restraint, to live as limitless as the frontier stretching out before them. An important aspect of this worldview is to be able to dominate without restraint as well, whether that be stripping the land of resources, or enslaving and killing other people. Grandin describes Andrew Jackson and the Jacksonian political tradition that came after him as the blueprint of freedom defined as limitless domination. It is the freedom of the master, the boss, the petty tyrant. This political strain can be seen throughout various reactionary movements in the country's history, notably in the modern conservative movement.
After highlighting the importance of the frontier throughout American history, Grandin comes to the present moment. What happens when the frontier is closed? What happens when endless expansion becomes impossible? Where do all those violent impulses that found a release in the borderlands go? Grandin believes they turn inward. This is what Donald Trump represents to him. The reactionary strain of settler colonial ideology has run out of frontiers to dominate, and now looks inward for enemies to blame. Trumpism is the limitless conception of freedom finally recognizing the limits of the world, and instead of facing those limits with a newfound sense of social responsibility or solidarity, chooses unrestrained hedonism for themselves, and barbaric domination for everyone else. Fortress America. Towards the end of the book, Grandin goes into detail on the various right-wing vigilante and paramilitary groups that have sprung up around the Mexican border over the past thirty years, whose goal is to "protect the border from immigrants." He provides a quote from one of these vigilantes that I think sums up what happens when the frontier comes home, "Build the wall and start shooting."