Frederick Jackson Turner was born on November 14, 1861, in Portage, Wisconsin, a very rural town with very diverse sets of European immigrants. His mother was a school teacher while his father was a newspaper journalist. Turner’s interest in history came at a very young age as his father was interested in his local history. Turner went on to study at the University of Wisconsin where he graduated in 1884 and obtained his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1890, becoming a professional historian. After receiving his Ph.D., Turner became a professor and taught at both University of Wisconsin and Harvard. Turner became most known through his infamous paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” which is also known as “The Frontier Thesis.” Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” first debuted at Chicago’s World Fair in 1893 which was presented in front of a meeting of historians. This paper was in response to …show more content…
the recent 1880 census that stated that the American frontier had come to an end. Turner theorized that the disappearance of the national frontiers is what caused the nation’s troubles during that time. In his thesis, Turner described America’s history directly correlated to the history of westward movement and expansion. In other words, the frontier shaped the character of American society. For example, the frontier promoted independence and individualism. The frontier also gave off traits such as democracy and materialism which was all influenced by the frontier experience. Turner believed that having to face the pressures and problems in the frontier had created the sense of democracy, as everyone treated each other equally to solve the problems they faced. Another point that Turner sought out to make was that the frontier created a sense of a “new” nationality.
Turner again emphasized that the frontier had many problems that were faced by the settlers that lived there. The point that Turner made was that the frontier living forced people to abandon their previous customs and adapt to the new lifestyle, in turn creating a new culture, the “American” culture. In simpler terms, the frontier had created a huge “melting pot”, with immigrants from all over the place working together to survive in the frontier. So in result all the immigrants’ cultures and values intertwined to create a new type of culture. In his thesis, Turner also pointed out how the frontier had led to America’s advancement as a nation. In his paper, Turner expressed that the internal movements that were made (railroads, canals, roads) were directly related to America’s want of moving westward. Turner than goes into more detail by explaining six major stages of development along the frontier all the way back from the colonial era to
1890. Finally, the last major argument/point that Turner tried to make is, that the existence of the frontier served as a “second-chance” to many. What this meant is that people of that time looked at the frontier as a brand new opportunity for life. If they were dissatisfied with their life or wanted a new beginning all they had to do was go out west to the frontier and begin this new life. Turner stated that with the closing of the frontier there would be no real viable option to get a second chance. So in turn one would be stuck in the circumstances that one was in, and have no apparent escape. Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” has influenced American history immensely. Turner’s essay showed a different approach to American history that had never been expressed before. Even though Turner’s thesis has been challenged and refuted by some, there is no doubt that that his essay has had a lasting impact/influence on American history. His thesis as a whole cultivated a new way of thinking of the America’s identity and culture.
The West is a very big part of American culture, and while the myth of the West is much more enticing than the reality of the west, it is no doubt a very big part of America. We’re constantly growing up playing games surrounded by the West such as cowboys and Indians and we’re watching movies that depict the cowboy to be a romanticized hero who constantly saves dames in saloons and rides off into the sunset. However, the characters of the West weren’t the only things that helped the development of America; many inventions were a part of the development of the West and helped it flourish into a thriving community. Barbed wire, the McCormick reaper and railroads—for example—were a large part of the development in the West—from helping to define claimed land boundaries, agricultural development and competition, and even growth of the West.
To many families the prospect of owning land was the central driving force that brought them to the land known today as the wild Wild West. Much propaganda wa...
Although the Chicago World’s fair of 1893 only lasted 6 months, it had an enormous impact on the city of Chicago, its people, and indeed the entire country. Up until that point in its history, the US had done nothing on the scale of the world’s fair, and was regarded as a country of barbarians and cowboys by much of the world, especially Old Europe. The fair was a perfect way for the US to disprove this. In building the fair, they would be placed in direct competition with France, who had built a magnificent fair only a few years before. If Chicago could at least build a fair on par with the Paris fair, it would prove to the world that the US was a cultural, military and political force to be reckoned with. Because of the fair’s gigantic scale, it became a microcosm of the conflicts and the tenor of the times. In effect, the fair was the turning point between the old Victorian days and the modern era, technologically, culturally, politically, and in the hearts of the people of the US and the world.
The Frontier Thesis has been very influential in people’s understanding of American values, government and culture until fairly recently. Frederick Jackson Turner outlines the frontier thesis in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. He argues that expansion of society at the frontier is what explains America’s individuality and ruggedness. Furthermore, he argues that the communitarian values experienced on the frontier carry over to America’s unique perspective on democracy. This idea has been pervasive in studies of American History until fairly recently when it has come under scrutiny for numerous reasons. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, William Cronon argues that many scholars, Turner included, fall victim to the false notion that a pristine, untouched wilderness existed before European intervention. Turner’s argument does indeed rely on the idea of pristine wilderness, especially because he fails to notice the serious impact that Native Americans had on the landscape of the Americas before Europeans set foot in America.
Prior to his death in 2009, Kenneth M. Stampp was one of the foremost historians regarding 19th century America which included several books regarding the American Civil War, the Reconstruction period, and slavery. Stampp was born July 12, 1912 in Milwaukee to German parents and was formally educated at the University of Wisconsin where he received his Bachelor of Science degree, Master of Arts degree, and Doctorate degree. After brief teaching stints at the Universities of Maryland and Arkansas, Stampp found himself a permanent position at the University of California at Berkeley from 1946 until his retirement in 1983. During his tenure, he published Indiana Politics during the Civil War, ...
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 knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
However, it is relevant that we understand the ripple effect that Turner’s thesis had on the world. Soon to be President had already written three of the fourteen four volumes of Winning the West, prior to reading the pamphlet. The concern I see that effects our society is that Turner was able through a speech able to not on influence but encourage Roosevelt to continue to write more in regards to Winning the Race in the West. The impact of Turner’s ideas and Roosevelt’s rise to presidency are a great indication of how significant the thesis was through the “frontiers” which included the Chinese Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine-American War. During both of these engagements, American soldiers were accused and found guilty of brutally beating, killing and even raping women and men in both regions. The tolerance of “manifest destiny” was still alive and well as Roosevelt then Governor of the Philippines would soon take over as President of the United States in 1904. Although this was a negative impact, this is still significant to our history even
This historical document, The Frontier as a Place of Conquest and Conflict, focuses on the 19th Century in which a large portion of society faced discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Its author, Patricia N. Limerick, describes the differences seen between the group of Anglo Americans and the minority groups of Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics Americans and African Americans. It is noted that through this document, Limerick exposes us to the laws and restrictions imposed in addition to the men and women who endured and fought against the oppression in many different ways. Overall, the author, Limerick, exposes the readers to the effects that the growth and over flow of people from the Eastern on to the Western states
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 was where many people went. Once in the western frontier, it was no longer just about blacks and whites. Racial tension rose and many different races and ethnic groups soon experienced discrimination and violence based on their race, and beliefs instead of a since of freedom at the western frontier.
The significance of Frontier in American History is a thesis paper that was written and delivered by Jackson Turner on 12th July 1893. Turner delivered this paper during a yearly meeting of the fledging American Historical Association that was being held at Chicago. I believe this paper had a lot of impact on the study of American History specifically in colleges and universities. The original paper was informed from twelve sources. Turner wrote this paper and formed the frontier theory following the work of Achille Loria- An Italian economist- who proposed that the key to changes in human society was free land and that America would be the best place to research on this proposal. The other event that precipitated Turners paper was the announcement of superintendent in 1890 census which claimed that there is insufficient free land in US to allow frontier to feature in the census report as had been previously done until 1790 (Turnver, 3).
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 fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
The West has always held the promise of opportunity for countless Americans. While many African Americans struggled to find the equality promised to them after the Civil War, in the West black cowboys appeared to have created some small measure of it on the range. Despite this, their absence from early historical volumes has shown that tolerance on the range did not translate into just treatment in society for them or their families.
James Turner was born on July 20, 1940, in Clinton, South Carolina, a small town about 25 miles south of Greenwood, where James and his wife, Vickie, currently live. His father worked in a textile factory as a machine operator, and his mother, for the most part, was a homemaker. When I asked James if he knew the origin of his last name, he said he never had any interest in looking into it. To his recollection, his great-great-grandmother on his father’s side was a Cherokee Indian, but the Turner last name is a common name originating in England, dating back as far as the 12th century. “They say if you shake the tree long enough, a monkey will fall out,” says James.
At first, we were a nation of immigrants that prospered in a way that people have never seen. America is known as the land of opportunity, we have innovativeness, and when you really work hard you can definitely make a change for yourself. Turner coins American development by the westward movement. Moving west, and tapping the resources given to us is what made us different. Turner’s thesis is, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain[s] American development. The idea that success came from moving west. This idea wraps up how America became the nation to be.
One of the biggest premises of Cronon’s argument is that the city and the country share a common history, therefore their stories are told together. The book begins with a discussion of Fredrick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis/argument. He stated that open land was the source of American advancement in terms of settlement and culture. Without it, he believed that dominant individualism that was created by expansion would be gone. Frontier is described as areas in the periphery of the metropolitan economy, therefore rural and unclaimed land. Turner believed that untamed land was slowly disappearing in stages due to increasing rural settlements. Instead, Cronon argues that western development of city and country occurs together and continuously.