Cody capitalized on a pervasive sense that a long era of territorial conquest and settlement was coming to an end, and he charmed audiences with a tribute to the closing of the frontier. Many of them took in performances staged by Buffalo Bill Cody, a legendary entertainer and army scout. The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of AmericaĪbout 25 million people visited Chicago in 1893 for the World’s Fair. The U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Arizona (Robert Bushell/Wikimedia Commons) As they came over the border, they inflamed the same constituencies that Reagan had mobilized to wage the wars that had turned them into refugees in the first place.Trump’s wall is a “monument to the final closing of the frontier.” He has abandoned the political language of boundless optimism for a darker tone. But Reagan's Central American wars (which comprised support for the Contras in Nicaragua and death squads in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) generated millions of refugees, many, perhaps most, of whom fled to the United States. Anti-communist campaigns in Central America-a region Reagan called 'our southern frontier'-were especially helpful in focusing militancy outward. Once he was in office, Reagan's re-escalation of the Cold War allowed him to contain the radicalization, preventing it from spilling over (too much) into domestic politics. Ronald Reagan, as the standard bearer of an ascendant New Right, effectively tapped into this radicalization, which helped lift him to victory in his 1980 presidential campaign. “Loss in Vietnam radicalized a generation of veterans, pushing many into the ranks of white-supremacist groups. The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

Also wanted to remove Spain from the Mississippi also wanted the capacities to pacify hostile native Americans and put down rebellions of poor people and all wanted Great Britain to get out of the way of their commerce.Īll wanted 'room enough,' as Thomas Jefferson would put it in his 1800 inaugural address, to be protected from Europe's 'exterminating havoc.'Įxpansion became the answer to every question, the solution to all problems, especially those two caused by expansion.” Whatever one's take on any of the debates of the day (especially the debate over slavery), and whatever one's philosophical understanding of the relationship of republicanism to land, commerce, finance, and labor, most agreed on practicalities. “Extend the sphere,' Madison wrote, and, 'you take in a greater variety of parties and interests,' and you make it difficult for either a mob majority or a tyrannical minority to unite 'to invade the rights of other citizens.'

The End of the Myth by Greg Grandin