This was a very interesting & readable book by an actual historian that defines the frontier, describes how Americans have used the term "frontier," and asserts how Americans have imagined various meanings and qualities included in the term. ( )

Started slow. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to understand it. It built in intensity and got easier and easier to read--and made me more uneasy. I learned a lot about the border and about US policy in both Democratic and Republican adminstrations. NAFTA was a huge mistake. Everything is scarier now. ( )

Muddled my way through the introduction, not very impressed, but decided to give the book a try anyway.

But the first two sentences of the first chapter:

“The British colonies in North America were conceived in expansion. America was an aspiration, an errand, and an obligation, born out of violent Christlan schism and Europe's interminable religious and ímperial conflicts.”

I read through the rest of the first paragraph - it didn’t get any better. OK this sounds like crap to me, sorry. “..,an aspiration, an errand, and an obligation” - is that really supposed to mean something or is it just an attempt to sound poetic?

This book got a good review in the NYT last month: “fine, elegantly written.” The author is a Yale professor of history. I’m a high school dropout with a GED and a CS degree from a crappy college. So, odds are the fault is with me, not the book.

I guess I’ll just leave it as another case of “not my kinda book.”

PS- After writing this I leafed through the rest of the book. I didn’t see anything else that bugged me the way the first paragraph of the first chapter did. Maybe I’ll give it a try. Someday. I dunno.

Yes, this book was written by a history professor, but it does not read like a typical history book, and certainly not like a school textbook. Despite a bit too much academia wording in the early going, for me, it read much more like a long -- okay, extra long -- magazine article in something like The Atlantic or The New Yorker. The author has a point to make about the United States, its very lengthy infatuation with the "frontier" and how the lack and/or significant changes in what the frontier is, at any given time in history, has led the country to, well, walls. Heading out to the "frontier" to get away from other folks and find happiness has now transitioned to putting up walls to keep away from those folks we could just leave behind before, with the promise that the pot of gold was waiting for us when got there. Yes, I'm oversimplifying. The author really brings out a lot of reasons to support his conclusion, much of which will get questioning responses from both sides of the political spectrum -- the Right will just call it lies -- but, trust me, I've read enough from numerous other sources to know he isn't making these things up. For example, Heather Cox Richardson's recent book, How the South Won the Civil War, is a good parallel piece, covering westward expansion of the United States in some very similar ways, if not exactly going for the same conclusions. I wish the phrasing the author took didn't match so well or so often with that of pundits more inclined to pull the wool over readers eyes, but the facts I already knew allowed me to trust him more than I might have otherwise to get all the way to end. I think a lot of readers will gain insight to America's history that they might not have had otherwise. Important insights. But that will only happen to those who are open-minded enough to realize how much our history has been packaged and sold for particular consumption. For example, how can a person who notoriously directed significant harm to major groups of people of color, end up be honored with his picture on some of America's most commonly held currency. Great marketing, I guess. ( )

A really well researched and written look at American History from Revolutionary times till the near present with all its warts. A major theme is how racism unified and fueled our countries' westward expansion over the years as well as our long tradition of wars against countries with dark skinned people after the West was fully settled. Major emphasis was placed on the lasting writings of historical author Frederick Jackson Turner. A must read for any true historian. ( )