Our Frontier Is the World

• Main Author: Honeck, Mischa
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Cornell University Press 2018
• Subjects: Fulcrum; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501716188.001.0001

Since its founding more than one hundred years ago, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has been a fulcrum in debates over what constitutes proper boyhood and manhood. Although the BSA developed a strong national identity, these debates had implications that extended far beyond the borders of the United States. Writing the global back into the history of one of the country’s largest youth organizations, Our Frontier is the World details how the BSA operated as a vehicle of empire from the Progressive Era to the countercultural movements of the second half of the twentieth century. American boys and men wearing the Scout uniform never simply hiked local trails to citizenship; they forged ties with their international peers, camped in foreign lands, started troops on overseas military bases, traveled to Africa, and even sailed to icy Antarctica. Weaving together these stories of youthful border-crossings, this book demonstrates how the BSA presented America’s complex engagements with the world as an honorable and playful masculine adventure.