The Scramble for America: How the United States Conquered a Continent

by Clement Knox

The gripping story of six borders – some still on the map, others long erased – that shaped the United States. From global power plays to broken treaties and lost futures, this is the untold history of how America's lines were drawn – and who paid the price.

The Scramble for America tells the story of six of lines that have, over the course of history, constituted America’s borders since independence in 1776. Three of these still exist on a the Southern border with Mexico, the Northern border with Canada, and the long border between Alaska and Canada. Three of them have now America’s original borders upon its founding, the vast and unruly line created by the Louisiana Purchase, and the Step Boundary created by the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819.

Clement Knox uses the history of America’s border lines as an original and fascinating way into the principal currents of American history. The origins of the Revolution. The establishment of the Constitution. The funding of the Federal government. The expansion of the Republic. The dispossession of the Native Americans. The immense and vital moral crisis over slavery. The history of these lines sometimes run parallel to one another and sometimes intersect.

This is a book for fans of Prisoners of Geography, and is a window into American history as it has never been read before.

Genres: History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2026

About the author

Clement Knox was born in 1989. He has a B.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford and an M.A. in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in London, where he works for Waterstones as a nonfiction buyer.