Turner Frontier Thesis

What Turner wants to point out here is that the American West is the most important feature of American history, and of the development of its society. He refers several times to a process of “Americanization” and we will see that the definition he gives of it is a very peculiar one. He gives a definition of the frontier: “it lies at the hither edge of free land”, meaning that he considers the Indian territory to be free land. According to him the frontier is the “meeting point between savagery and civilization”, “the most rapid and effective Americanization”. The process of Americanization he refers to is in fact a double

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

Patricia Nelson Limerick describes the frontier as being a place of where racial tension predominately exists. In her essay, “The Frontier as a Place of Ethnic and Religion Conflict,” Limerick says that the frontier wasn’t the place where everyone got to escape from their problems from previous locations before; instead she suggested that it was the place in which we all met. The frontier gave many the opportunities to find a better life from all over the world. But because this chance for a new life attracted millions of people from different countries across the seas, the United States experienced an influx of immigrants. Since the east was already preoccupied by settlers, the west was available to new settlement and that

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

The frontier was the most line of rapidness and effective Americanization. When the masters of the colonist found him, an European, it stripped him and provided him with a hunting shirt and moccasin. It settles him in a log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois. It provided a planting job of Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick. Before going to planting he shouted the war cry and took the scalp in Indian fashion. Little by little his transformation outcomes were not old Europe and not the development of Germanic germs.

According to Turner, “in the settlement of America we have to observe how European life entered the continent, and how America modified and developed that life and reacted on Europe.”(Turner, pg. 2) It is believed that America was an extension of Europe civilization just in a different land, but in Turner's thesis, is that we developed new techniques and faced broadened challenges that change the way we think in America. This is the key point of his argument, which the vast skills and knowledge we acquired from the excursion westward, created a new society and left the old influences behind. As stated by Turner, “the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.” (Turner, pg. 1) He highly believes that the Frontier plays an indispensable role in American History throughout the colonization of the West. (Tuner, pg.

After reading Turner’s Thesis, it is easy to understand the more important concept of moving the Frontier to the West. He states how we are influenced by the changes the America has to go through. He believes that the

American history is in a process of continuous change when it comes to ideas, infrastructure, and of course, land. While many argue against the idea of the detrimental effects environmental destruction, numerous events in history have known to show otherwise such as in the Columbian Exchange, the Industrial Revolution, and Westward migration.

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.

Response to Turner's Essay on The Significance of the Frontier in American History Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" essay presents the primary model for comprehending American history. Turner developed his notions on the uncovering of the 1890 census that the frontier was coming to an end, that the nation had occupied its continental borders. As Turner discusses in his essay, an extensive era of American development approached an ending, but left enduring marks on American society. A major notion within his claims of the American frontier is, "the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, [that]

Turner states in the first chapter that “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development. When America decided to colonize west its isolation led to the need of communication,legislation and transportation. As America developed it started to move away from the influence of Europe. He points out that west of America is one of the most important features of shaping America. The frontier lands also gave a way for the government to provide economic benefits without raising taxes.Fredrick Jackson Turner changed the way Historians were thinking about the United States by arguing that the Frontier had a major impact on the way America was shaped . He

Hidden in the middle of prose and paint, Bryant and Cole used their work to describe the frontiers of America by comparing it to Europe. They touch on important issues such as urbanization and deforestation and use their influence to argue against it. In this paper, I will examine how Cole uses his work to show the evolution of the frontier over time which consequently demonstrates how change constitutes destruction. I will also go into detail on how Bryant and Cole differ in their views on involvement in the pressing issue of urbanization.

One of the greatest influences on Hofstadter had been Charles Beard. Beard’s Progressive style had lead him to be the one of the greatest historians of the first half of the twentieth century (Beard). As Hofstadter had begun to write and learn more, he began to stray from Beard’s Progressive ideologies and move to those of consensus history. He respected the unity of American values, and used insight to further his historical outlooks. Moreover, a contradiction between Beard and Hofstadter can made from their outlooks on the formation of the U.S. Constitution. In Beard’s Framing the Constitution, he praises the members of the assembly that worked together to form the U.S. Constitution (Beard). Charles Beard mentions that they are “skilled in statecraft” and have much “political wisdom” (Beard). On the contrary, in Hofstadter’s The American Political Tradition, Hofstadter, although supportive of the Founding Fathers, comes at them harshly to provide insight that would lead to the America we have today (Greenberg). Frederick Jackson Turner is known for being a great historian of the early twentieth century and having a focus on the Midwest. He believed that the western frontier affected American democracy and character (Turner). Turner had a style that, although detailed and precise, could not compare to that of Hofstadter who brought more thinking into his works. Furthermore, Hofstadter’s intelligent analysis of American history along with his personable wit cause him to outshine other

It draws the global attention to the extend and the achievements of America concerning the major issues of development. However, it must be noted that the history of achievement takes its form of complexity that features the details and characters involved in the immediate past, as well as the ones who determined the current status of America. In the process, major issues like slavery, revolution and settlement served as major drawbacks that hampered development within the American boundaries. In the “Portrait of America”, the collective work done by Oates and Errico (2012) features an important section that avails more information headed “I Will Be Heard: William Lloyd Garrison And The Struggle Against Slavery” depicting the work of a humbled author Ian Berlin, who focused much on Nat Turner, who was by then considered a revolt following the prevailing conditions of slavery. Further details on antislavery reveal the true character of an abolitionist, Garrison. In addition, the work narrows down to the actions taken by Thomas Jefferson related to antislavery.

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.