The Frontier Of The American Frontier

Thus the census of 1890 shows, in the Northwest, many counties in which there is an absolute or a relative decrease of population. These States have been sending farmers to advance the frontier on the Plains, and have themselves begun to turn to intensive farming and to manufacture. A decade before this, Ohio had shown the same transition stage. Thus the demand for land and the love of wilderness freedom drew the frontier ever onward.

Faragher, John Mack. Re-reading Frederick Jackson Turner: “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”

There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough

In the beginning the frontier was Atlantic coast. The frontier was Europe in some sort of real sense. While moving towards the west the frontier became more American. Form the frontier being advanced it meant a steady movement away from any influence from Europe, a constant growth of independence in American lines. The only way to study the frontier’s advance, the men who were growing up in the conditions, and the economic, and social results of it, is really the study of American part of our

There are many factors that made the West, from government, politics, wars, climate and geography. So why are all these factors matter, because when the people wanted to expand their settlements they have to deal with the consequences that they have to risk. Each part of this paper will give you history of each individual era from the expansion of the West, Civil War and the reconstruction of the nation, Home on the Ranch, and rise of the industrial America

The Frontier Thesis may play a heavy part in U.S. history, but there are implications for truly understanding the outlines of this thesis. Fredrick Jackson Tuner during a great meeting of American Historical Association on July 12th, 1893 in Chicago, a paper named “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” This paper introduced an innovative way of astonishment to understanding the construction of America. Turner envisioned that the history of America was not focused one the prominence of the Frontier and the America established many trades and accomplishments from this voyage. Such as Tuner laid out the foundation of his thesis, he also didn’t account for the flaws that were overlooked from his discernment of the Frontier. (Tuner, pg. 1-9)

The collection consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. The collection is drawn from the holdings of the University of Chicago Library and the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky.

Michael L. Tate’s book Indians and Emigrants looks to the years on the Overland Trails from 1840-1870 and makes a seemingly bold statement. He refutes the old ideal of Indian and White relations and provides a persuasive scholarly work explaining that more often than not whites and Indians interacted peacefully and for each other’s benefit. The thirty years of widespread cooperation can be condensed into three practical realities of emigrant’s time on the Overland Trails. To start, the emigrant’s main goal was to make

Faragher, Buhle, Cziyron and Armitage ( 2010) note the westward development into the new territories of the United States usually took place in three stages; trade, settlement and statehood. The speed at which this expansion occurred reinforced America's sense of themselves as a pioneering people. This experience worked to create a belief that the United States was a nation of adventurous, optimistic, and democratic people (p. 357).

Emmons, D., & Udall, S. L. (2003). Part II: Settlement in the Old West: Correcting the Record. In Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West. [http://site.ebrary.com/lib/westerngovernors/docDetail.action?docID=10081834&page=154]. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/westerngovernors/docDetail.action?docID=10081834&page=154

In 1893, at the 400th anniversary of the appearance of Columbus in the Americas celebrated in Chicago , Frederick Jackson Turner presented an academic paper entitled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” In this essay, Turner proposes that, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development.” The group dynamic that Turner champions is the farmer. More directly it is white, male farmers. While the expansion of the west by white male farmers was a factor in the development of America, it is not the only explanation for this progression. Turner fails to incorporate all of the demographics present during this expansion which were essential to the evolution of America.

Prior to the nineteenth century, Americans had no real unique identity and were still widely regarded as European, however with the rise of the Romantic era, America began to retain an identity based on the idea strong moral compass, God ordained expansion, and reverence of nature, making the ideal American a frontiersman. Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1806 was a momentous turning point in American history as it is considered by many historians to be the onset of the Romantic movement. The Louisiana Purchase more than doubled the size of the United States. This huge expanse of land caused a dramatic shift from the highly-coveted mindset of rationalism to the ideas of romanticism. As new land, yet to be contaminated by mankind, was readily available for all Americans, people quickly began to venture west. As they traveled, a new sense of nature arose among Americans, one where the wilderness was divine, sublime and awe-inspiring. These ideas that help define the new American man are best presented in the abundant literature, artwork, and historical events littered throughout the 19th century. James Fennimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer is just one of these many pieces of work. The Deerslayer is a unique literary work as t it was one of the first fictional books written in the United States. Despite the fact that it is not a true story, it conveys a great deal of information about American society during the time period. The main character of Cooper’s

Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in

The emergence of western history as an important field of scholarship started with Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1861-1932) famous essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American history.”[1] This thesis shaped both popular and scholarly views of the West for the next two generations. In his thesis, Turner argued that the West had to be taken seriously. He felt that up to his time there had not been enough research of what he in his essay call “the fundamental, dominating fact in the U.S. history”: the territorial expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The frontier past was, according to Turner, the best way to describe the distinctive American history and character.

In the 1840s on June 25th my 9th birthday my family is packing up to move to the Michigan frontier. On our way there we saw seagles, deers, wolves, bats, owls, eagles, and trees. It took 26 days to get there, because we came from New York. The government said if we live here at this piece of land for several years we could own the land for free.