The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

“This book explores the history of the American frontier, and what happens to the myth of expansiveness when the nation's imperatives shift away from limitless growth to building walls. Is this still a land of opportunity, advancing beyond limits where ideas and those seeking opportunity are free to roam? The End of the Myth shows how much expansiveness in the physical frontier belies expansiveness in other areas of the American Dream, like "markets, war, culture, technology, science, the psyche, and politics." It shows by contrast how draconian immigration laws have permanently morphed the myth of that all-embracing, moralistic exploration to become a rallying cry for walls - and what that means for facing the nation's passing down of "historical traumas and resentments." The End of the Myth won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.”