Greg Grandin, a Nation editorial board member, teaches history at Yale University. His most recent book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall, was just published in paperback.
Martin Luther King Jr. saw something essential about our nation: Imperial expansion west over stolen Indian land shaped and deepened the American Revolution’s relationship to slavery.
For nearly two centuries, US politicians have channeled extremism outward. But the frontier is gone, the empire is faltering, and the chickens are coming home to roost.
