New texts dealing with history and its interpretation

THE END OF THE MYTH by Greg Grandin (Fordlandia) is subtitled “From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America.” Grandin begins with a reference to Frederick Jackson Turner in the very first sentence of his introduction, soon noting that “the kind of Americanism Turner represented took all the unbounded optimism that went into the founding of the United States and bet that the country’s progress, moving forward on the frontier and into the world, would reduce racism to a remnant … would dilute other social problems as well, … teaching diverse people how to live together in peace.” Contrast that with Grandin’s last sentence, quoting Donald Trump on keeping out Central American asylum seekers: “Barbed wire can be a beautiful sight.” In between, Grandin uses chapters with titles like “All that Space,” “The Safety Valve,” “A Psychological Twist,” and “More, More, More” to explore America’s border myth, expansionist policies, changing identity, and recent disenchantment. Called “troubling, but inspiring,” this new, and at times controversial, work by an award-winning author contains roughly sixty pages of notes and a detailed index.

BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE by Doug Jones is subtitled “The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights.”  The newly elected Senator from Alabama is a former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama where he prosecuted former KKK members for their roles in the 1963 bombing. In Part One of this text, he first describes events leading up to the bombing, the event itself (which occurred when Jones was 9 years old), and then the prosecution by Alabama’s Attorney General, William Baxley, eventually leading to one conviction in 1977.  Subsequent sections describe Jones’ own career and activities as a prosecutor, mainly in obtaining the convictions in early the 2000s.  The book contains several plates of black and white images, primarily of Jones and/or his family. BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE offers firsthand accounts and another perspective on an historic event – one that took nearly forty years to achieve a legal resolution.