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A review by tmvallehoag
The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America by Greg Grandin
4.0
A powerful history of America’s unjust wars and an unflinching analysis of what the “frontier” really is: wherever America is offloading its violence at a given time.
Grandin, successfully, argues that America has long put off or slowed social progress by offering an alternative in the frontier - either unlimited resources for the disenfranchised or unlimited racial violence for those who would otherwise kill their fellow citizens.
The coming of Trumpism, then, represents a new politics which simultaneously promises freedom from any sort of restraint for white Americans while acknowledging the limitations of abundance. Where former presidents were happy to turn American racial resentment outwards to Vietnam, Iraq, and Mexico, Trump has decided to drop the charade and bring the war home.
Grandin, successfully, argues that America has long put off or slowed social progress by offering an alternative in the frontier - either unlimited resources for the disenfranchised or unlimited racial violence for those who would otherwise kill their fellow citizens.
The coming of Trumpism, then, represents a new politics which simultaneously promises freedom from any sort of restraint for white Americans while acknowledging the limitations of abundance. Where former presidents were happy to turn American racial resentment outwards to Vietnam, Iraq, and Mexico, Trump has decided to drop the charade and bring the war home.