Leslie Paris, Associate Professor of History, University of British Columbia:
Working at the intersection of the histories of American masculinity, leisure, age, and imperialism, and tracing both real and imagined border-crossings, Our Frontier is the World shows powerfully and engagingly how American Boy Scouts and their leaders participated in the cultural work of American power, both abroad and at home.
Daniel Immerwahr, author of Thinking Small:
From overseas colonies to global wars to military occupations, the Boy Scouts have been there, training millions of boys to carry out the United States’ mission in the world. Mischa Honeck has fastened on an easily ignored but vitally important dimension of political life, and a fascinating one.
Ian Tyrrell, Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales, coauthor of Empire's Twin and author of Crisis of the Wasteful Nation:
Our Frontier Is the World is a study of the cultural underpinnings of the distinctive type of empire that the United States became in the twentieth century. It provides much understanding of how American power was aggregated and sustained but also obscured from clear view. The close alliance shown to have developed by the Boy Scouts with the America nation-state distinguishes this work. Cleverly researched and resourceful in its exploration of the psychological mechanism of masculinity and empire building, Honeck’s work is an important addition to the historiography of American imperialism.
Jeremi Suri, author of The Impossible Presidency:
The Boy Scouts seem as American as apple pie. This wonderful, deeply researched book describes the growth of the Boy Scouts with a respectful, but critical eye. The author shows how the Boy Scouts contributed to the changing, contested role of the United States as a global power. The Boy Scouts redefined what it meant to be an American boy and man. Anyone interested in the history of American democracy, politics, and foreign policy will learn a lot from this groundbreaking book.
Mischa Honeck's Our Frontier Is the World demonstrates how fields of historiography can fruitfully overlap if not quite merge... In splendidly researched and forcefully argued narrative, standards intertwine in clear view, enlivened by quotations and anecdotes... Thoughtful and sharply worded, this book finds great complexity in its subjects.
This masterly study of the BSA will appeal to students and scholars of U.S. empire and to anyone invested in understanding how age-related constructs of difference operated within the intertwined national and globalized youthscapes of the tumultuous twentieth century
Our Frontier Is the World: The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy is an expansive examination of the global history of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the organization's role in promoting "American ascendancy" in cultural, political, and even military realms.... Honeck's book is a critical addition to the field
Honeck provides a superbly written and richly detailed history of the Boy Scouts abroad. He fully accomplishes his goal to show that the BSA's agenda neatly dovetailed with U.S. foreign policy in times of crisis by becoming a useful tool from which to sharpen U.S. influence abroad behind the innocent faces of young American boys.
This original and incisive portrait of scouting's shifting global frontiers demonstrates the centrality of this iconic youth organization to the construction and maintenance of U.S.
In a richly detailed and researched book, nearly a quarter of the pages are dedicated to sources and citations, providing a history of the BSA while at the same time exploring the evolution of the United States as an imperial power. Honeck provides details, research, and several sources to make his argument. The book presents a complex and intriguing picture of the intersection of a service organization, empire, and identity in the twentieth century... Honeck's fine work chronicles the intentions of the BSA, but it remains an open question as to what the effects were on everyday Scouts.
Thought-provoking and deeply researched.... Our Frontier Is the World covers much fresh ground. Indeed, Honeck's expansive narrative provides new insights on a wide variety of topics, from the development of mass media to the commodification of Native American culture to the role of youth in waging the Cold War.... Exploring the complex nexus of boyhood and empire, Our Frontier Is the World deftly illuminates the contours of U.S. power.