Second Thursday Lecture Series
The Age of the Borderlands with Andrew C. Isenberg

Join us for a virtual evening with Andrew C. Isenberg as he discusses his new book The Age of the Borderlands: Indians, Slaves, and the Limits of Manifest Destiny, 1790–1850 (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Cabildo as part of the Second Thursday Lecture Series. It is free and open to the public, but registration is required. The program will take place on Zoom. Please register here and a link will be emailed to you the day of the lecture: https://forms.gle/CKYeCbPpWvDfLQsM9

About the Book
In The Age of the Borderlands, acclaimed historian Andrew C. Isenberg offers a new history of manifest destiny that breaks from triumphalist narratives of US territorial expansion. Isenberg takes readers to the contested borders of Spanish Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, California, Texas, and Minnesota at critical moments in the early to mid-nineteenth century, demonstrating that the architects of American expansion faced significant challenges from the diverse groups of people inhabiting each region. In other words, while the manifest destiny paradigm begins with an assumption of US strength, the government and the agents it dispatched to settle and control the frontier had only a weak presence.

About the Author
Dr. Andrew C. Isenberg is the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas, where he teaches in the areas of Environmental History, the North American West, Borderlands, and U.S. History. He has written books on the U.S. military in the Pacific Ocean, the destruction of the bison in the American West, the California Gold Rush, and Wyatt Earp.