"The culture wars are pitting us against each other with a vitriol that is fueling outright violence. Slotkin looks to the foundational myths that have shaped American identity-the Frontier, the Founding, the Civil War (Emancipation and Lost Cause), and Good War-and reveals how and why they are bringing the United States to the brink of an existential crisis."--

Myths of the White Republic -- Myth of the Frontier -- Myth of the Founding -- Civil War Mythologies -- Lincoln and Liberation -- Confederate Founding: Civil War as Culture War -- Lost Cause: Redemption and the White Reunion -- Nation Transformed: From Reconstruction to the Good War -- Industrialization, Vigilantism and the Imperial Frontier -- Great Exception: The New Deal and National Myth -- Myth of the Good War Myth: Platoon Movies and the Reconception of American Nationality -- American Apotheosis: From Kennedy's New Frontier to Reagan's Morning in America -- New Frontier: Savage War and Social Justice -- Cultural Revolution: The Sixties, the Movement and the Great Society -- Back in the Saddle: Reagan, Neoliberalism and the War Against the Sixties -- Rising Tide: Climate Change and the Fossil Fuel Frontier -- Cowboys and Aliens: The Global War on Terror -- Age of Culture War -- Obama Presidency: The Myth of the Movement and the Tea Party Reaction -- Equalizers: The Gun Rights Movement and Culture-War Conservatism -- Trump Redemption: Make America Great Again -- Trump in the White House: The President as Insurgent -- Imagining Civil War: The 2020 Election -- "The Last President of the Confederacy": Trump's Lost Cause