Frederick Jackson Turner and the Question of American Exceptionalism

During the 1890’s, the quest began for a ‘New History’ in the United States that would challenge the patient application of the “scientific” method. The 1890 census report had officially stated that the complete settlement of America’s western frontier marked the end of Manifest Destiny. Westward expansion had been an integral aspect of the American identity and its citizen were left wondering what would continue to propel the United States into a rapidly modernizing world. Progressive historian Frederick Jackson Turner wrote less and influenced his own generation more than any important historian. In his works, Turner spelled out his version of a New History in the modern spirit. Although his writings were few and limited, Turner promoted westward American expansion as unique and the conditions settlers faced in settling the frontier as the exception.

The thing of first significance in Turner’s work was the approach. Until his appearance American historians were, with few exceptions, primarily interested in politics and constitutional problems, and few essayed interpretation. Against such attitudes Turner revolted. Because he had been part of a rapidly changing order, he saw American history as a huge stage on which men, in close contact with raw nature, were ever engaged in the evolution of society from simple beginnings to complex ends. According to Turner, historians had answered “what” long enough; the time had come to inquire as to “how” things came about. America, as it then existed, was the product of the interaction of “economic, political and social forces in contact with peculiar geographic factors.” Such an understanding would be the basis for Turner’s claim of American exceptionalism.

In the years following ...

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... the industrial machine was systemic. The process of industrialization produced no clear-cut winner or loser. Workers benefited from industrialization and its subsequent problems in that they found a practical political platform in the Progressives, and massive strides were made in the way of better social organization. But Carnegie, Gould, and other ‘captains of industry’ too profited handsomely by providing little more than a job to their poverty-stricken workers. One product of industrialism that was proven workers and entrepreneurs alike was that people have preferences and desires and the government should be used to ensure consumer protection. Ultimately, the process of industrialization may be considered a ‘revolution’ in that, unlike previous generations, people began to see themselves as well as their government as intrinsic instead of instrumental.