The myth is the central symbol around which what some people call american exceptionalism has been organized around the frontier that meant on the myth and the land the Frontier West came to symbolize a certain attribute to identity that think about the United States unlike other nations has the ability and the election read to use expansion that was built into well before the frontier in the late 19th century became the symbol of expansion the social experience to move one is foundational to us identity. No other nation has been so able to organize domestic politics through the actual reality of expansion and then increasingly the mythology to point to the frontier and respond to social problems with limitless and endless growth in these were the foundational premise of the United States and the founding fathers. And those only for the declaration of independence wasnt just add natural right that the condition of all natural rights. And what is his saxon ancestors to escape germany and consolidating to the british isles. And then to escape tyranny jefferson argued that made American Freedom possible other theorist and franklin understood the importance of expansion to avoid a lot of problems associated with republican theory at the time how to maintain virtue and how to avoid a concentration of political power and extremism while James Madison famously federalist number ten how you avoid factionalism and extremism and now what we would call class warfare he didnt call at that time that concentrated economic power and indebted populist and the small republic how the interest of those two groups could come into conflict but the way you avoid the extremism that might result from private property is to move west i am not whitewashing that experience in any way there is always an enormous amount of violence and ethnic cleansing along with that indigenous removal expanding slavery west across the continent but there is still a way in which those expansion and those in particular that becomes central to the book and to hold up the frontier is more than a place and is a continent for a boundary your political border and it becomes that existential creation the place in which in the 1893 said that civilization with a certain Political Freedom and equality associated with the United States was founded and forged in the point of the book and this is all a way to answer the question into layout that argument of the book the impetus when donald trump descended on the escalator to announce his presidency on june 15, 2016 and promised to build the great wall the main tension in the book the myth of the frontier symbolizing moving into the future a limitlessness with domestic politics through the promise of endless growth that all could rise up and sit at the table there is room enough for that idealism and optimism that has said to structure american exceptionalism and to supplant the frontier. With the frontiers symbolizes limitlessness. And thats not enough everybody. When the frontier symbolized moving into the future and with the militarism and the border watch Groups Associated to emerge in the 2000s and shape the public debate about immigration and we can talk about how they took over the Republican Party to the point they catapulted donald trump to the presidency. And the innovating past where the recent lost wars and battles could be fought with the accumulated historical grievances. And as the border wall it became clear the ball of that what people called reese realism. And then to dominate public debate understanding trump as completely foreign and alien to the American Experience it of unprecedented interruption and a long history of expansion of the promise of liberalism and then extremism in the past stayed on the margins that emerged out of nowhere. And that combination of a long history of the colonial vibrant violence. And with that brutalism and extremism involved in history founded on child slavery and the way we get out of that opposition is by thinking about expansion and what happened recently that has allowed movement such as trump is him to move from the margins to take public power and the argument of the book to the early cant limits and to no longer use the promise of endless growth for domestic politics with the moral and strategic catastrophe that the war entails. And in recovery. And with that social immobility and it is Climate Change and endless growth is no longer possible. So the argument is trump is a ms. What happens when the empire ends and the law has supplanted as the central symbol of American History. To set of the terms of the book amazing to represent not only the literal space but the strategy clearly and that immigration and expansion to the us is based on exclusion or removal. And that is what it has been founded on so we would love to go into detail through expansion and through brutal expansion, want to touch on Andrew Jackson and how did jackson change that crack. I think and to represent the coastal correlation and with John Quincy Adams and jackson represented the interest of the frontier to a large degree and a frontier lawyer and key to opening up and in many ways at first run founding president say imagine the United States moving west and fulfilling itself out and they took steps with the Louisiana Purchase that brought a quantity of acreage into the United States possession that was unfathomable. And John Quincy Adams the most humane president believed the country where reach the pacific. They couldnt figure out how to make it happen or the capacity to remove native americans they have some calls and responsibility of the all out assault of native American Communities event jefferson issued instructions into predatory debt. There is a way the desire for expansion didnt match the capacity. He represents the sweeping away of the qualms. John quincy adams loses the presidency to jackson and becomes a one term president that is increasingly radicalized by the jacksonians. He wasnt opposed to expansion and then opposed to launching a violent all out war. And then through texas and mexicanamerican war. And Andrew Jackson all those that came later. And then to rip the nation apart would harden the nation into two opposing camps which it did. Free versus slave. And that only thing the essential identity and the racial violence on the frontier. And then to go into it in detail it is remarkable. And that is unsparing in the condemnation and what that portends and that would lead to that annexation. That are you ready for all of these wars . And that it would hollow out the larger republican vision he imagined into law and commerce. Jackson is key to this and it is also key to solidify that jacksonian consensus of the small state. That other liberal states in the world didnt socialize and become more active with their understanding of political rights. The revolution of 1848 in europe lead to a social Democratic Politics and are recognizing one a reckoning. And then the drive to the pacific thats the way that the question is constantly deflecte deflected. And the jacksonian consensus is key to this and the idea that it is a minimal state. The only proper definition is freedom from restraint and from individual rights not eventually what become social rates. So the jacksonian consensus founded on indian removal, not once but across the continent and that notion lysed freedom and then you cannot separate that out. The entire western hemisphere came to be inhabited by people inhabited by a somewhere else most willingly one grade exception those that came in bondage but unwilling to settle for those conditions in which they were born john by the prospect of a new beginning the space to pursue they ambitions the way the world did not permit its a very powerful world hope has both the secular materials as well as spiritual ones all of these meanings had existed and still exist in abundance in america. Nothing about america better defines the character of ubiquity of hell. And that we can never settle for that. And that above all else and as quality which cannot be adequately accounted for in material terms. And to be a land of hope sometimes that is a land of disappointment. And this is unavoidable to have high ideals. So sometimes what they have done. We should not be surprised by this just as we should not be surprised to discover our heroes were deeply flawed human beings. All human beings are flawed as are all human enterprises. To believe otherwise is to be naive. And americans hope is far too persistent and compelling a force to be defeated by passing sentiment. And then the theme of the story america has a story. And we organize around stories of the social existence. And the chief way to find meaning in the intensification of the human need and impulse. And to have a fuller sense of the book and each dealing with an issue or event especially important but yet problematic and the single most sensitive subject in the presentation of American History and our nations past that is one of balance insisting the importance of slavery without exaggerating the enduring significance. And then to imagine it was uniquely american institution. And the United States did not create slavery or racism or racial prejudice. These evils are as old as history. The default position of human nature absent from strong countervailing moral force. And having a history touch by these evils and having participated in them is a country that has a larger history of which it can be proud to overcome such things. And then to deal with the problem decisively at the time of the countrys beginning. And then to become national ems in the economy despite the existence to the nations commitment to equality in selfrule as expressed in the declaration of independence. And with that how is it that we hear the liberty of drivers among negroes . And with that exemplary managed with thomas jefferson. I practice so contradictory for all they stood for. There is no easy answer to such questions. And that each of us is born into a world we did not make. And also at great cost and those moral sensibilities are not static and develop deep and over time and its very slow part of that history is the training of the imagination and then acting in their own times and then learning to see the heroes and the mixture admirable and on admirable qualities. People like us who may be constrained by circumstances beyond control. And then certainly a most unavoidable and that original compromise and with increasing the numbers of americans especially in one part of the union and that and date on this ubiquitous institution not merely as the unfortunate evil and the impediment to Human Progress the stain upon the nation and with that moral sensibility the transformation taking place but not yet completed the very years the United States was formed. It would be profoundly wrong to contend as some do founded on slavery. No. Other principles entirely of liberty in selfrule discovered and designed and refined and enshrined to the tempering efforts of turbulent centuries of european and british and American History. And then the eventual bloodshed. But that is not the product of the conception of the untroubled differently on delivery is few things are. And the publication of the New York Times and with that slavery and the project we are told well be producing and distributing materials for use to promote that idea. Absent the countervailing argument and the part of the education of American Students is teaching slavery as part of the enduring makeup of dna and that metaphor that they use. And is pernicious but i related wisdom of the statesmen may be less obvious precisely because only the leader is in a position to understand all the essential forces in play being a great leader requires courage and imagination and daring especially when the outcome seems doubtful and the public leans in a different direction or is simply afraid. It may mean courting the displeasure of the multitudes accepting unpopularity as a result the book contains many examples but lets take the case of lincoln we are so accustomed to think of lincoln and heroic terms we forget the depth and breadth of his unpopularity virtually for his entire time and office. A first rate second rate man. George mcclellan opponent in 1864 election openly sustained, meaning problem. Election year lincoln was convinced it was good reason he was doomed to lose that election with incalculable consequences for the effort and all he had done all sacrificed to that end. We need to remember this is generally how history happens. This is directed toward the young people but i think all of us can benefit from this. We need to remember this is generally how history happens. Its not like a hollywood movie in which the background music swells and clouds in the room applies and leapt to their feet as the timeless words and camera pans the room full of smiling faces. In real history, background music does not spell. Critics often louder than the applause. The leader or soldier has to wonder, is he acting in vain . Are the criticisms of others, in fact, true . What time judge him harshly . With his sacrifice count for nothing . Two great leaders have felt this burden more comprehensively than lincoln. I do this a lot with other states in times of stress the cap people to appreciate. Let me also suggest something from the land of hope relates the story of the end of the civil war april 1865 in a way that might hold lessons for our other countrymen today who seem to regard the american past with contempt. Heres how i describe the scene in the book is a somewhat longer passage april 9, after funeral resistance range to be in the courthouse, surrender his army. He could not surrender for the whole confederacy but the surrender of his army would trigger the surrender of all others so represented the end of the confederate cause. It was a scene dignified and restrained and sad, a terrible storm raged and finally exhausted itself, leaving behind strange and reverent home, purged of all passion. The two men have known one another in the mexican war and have not seen one in nearly 20 years. The right first wearing his advocate dress uniform, soon to be joined by mud spattered hope in his muddy boots. They showed one another courtesy grant the officers to keep their sidearms and men keep their horses and take them home for spring planting. None arrested or charged with treason. Four days later when please army of 28000 men marched and sprinted the arms of palace, general Joshua Chamberlain of maine, hero of gettysburg was present at the ceremony. He wrote the observation reflected on his soldierly respect for the men before him each passing by and stacking him arms. Only days before had been his mortal post. Before us proud humiliations to the embodiment of manhunt. Men who neither toiled in sufferings from the fact of death not disaster or hopelessness been from their resolve. Standing before us now in one in famished. Looking level into arms, pounding us together is no other bond. Such manhood to be welcomed back into a union so tested and assured . On our part, not a sound of trumpet more drum, not a cheer, not a word more respect for authority. No emotional man standing against the owner. Stillness and Breath Holding as if it were the passing of the dead. Thats chamberlains observations. In my account from there. Such deep sympathy and victory heavily tinged with sadness and grief and death, this war and remains to this day americas bloodiest conflict, generated at least 1 million and a half casualties combined, including 620,000 or some estimate for more than that, thats equivalent of 6 million men in todays american population. Just going to work never return home. One and 13 returned home with one or more missing claims. For decades to come in every village and town the land from one could see men bearing such scars in population, mainly reminder the price others have paid. Yet, temperaments words suggested there might be room in the days and years ahead spirit of conciliation. Spirit that lincoln called for in his second inaugural speech. Spirit of finding a wound, of caring for the many afflicted and moving ahead together. He was a center of hope from yet a home Worth Holding and nourishing. Worth pursuing. We all know it didnt turn out that way. Thanks, in large part john fuchs booth, the assassin of lincoln. The story i think is what nonetheless. If they could find it in the hearts to be that forgiving, that generous, respectful of men who had been only days before their mortal enemies, we have to be able to extend similar generosity towards men from what is now, for us, a far more distant past. We can be encouraged by lincoln himself said something similar at a Cabinet Meeting april 14, the very day of his assassination, so daunting. I hope lincoln said, i hope there will be no persecution, no bodywork after the work is over. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentment if we expect harmony and union. There has been too much of a desire on the part of some of our very good friends to be pastors, interfere with and dictate to those, treat people as fellow citizens. Theres too little respect for their rights. I do not sympathize these feelings. Perhaps clintons hopes were unrealistic, perhaps an outcome thats impossible. Perhaps it would have entailed too many concessions. We can never know for sure. Given the high regard in which lincoln is rightly held by most americans and most of the worlds greatest leaders, it would be a mistake not to Pay Attention to this example not only in understanding the past in which he lived but the present in which we live as well. We can never lost sight of the fact the work that consumed his presidency and finally his life would be a failure if it were not, in the end, a work of reunification and reconciliation. Not merely a war of c