Frederick Jackson Turner Frontier Thesis

Frederick Jackson Turner first spoke to an audience about the Turner Thesis during the 1893 Chicago World Fair. This event was the central ground of American superiority. Many different business groups of diverse backgrounds met to share new products, values and aspects of their culture. Turner stated in one of his speeches at an American Historians seminar that the american frontier or the desire to settle in an area of open and free land will always remain in effect. Due to the lack of land to expand in our continent, America would look overseas.

In his essay, Frederick Jackson Turner argued that the American Frontier was crucial to the development of American identity and democracy. He believed that the experience of settling and taming the West had created a uniquely American character that prized individualism, self-reliance, and independence. According to Turner, if Americans did not continue to have access to a frontier, they risked losing these essential qualities and becoming weak and dependent. Essentially, Turner believed that the Frontier was the key to America's success and survival as a nation. What did the frontier promote for the American people?

Anne Bruner Eales’ book, Army Wives on the American Frontier: Living by the Bugles, largely agrees with Fredrick Jackson Turner’s thesis. Both Turner and Eales have the idea that the American frontier shaped and changed people, creating a unique American. Throughout the three chapters of Eales’ book, there were similarities and differences between the chapters and Turner’s thesis. The two major similarities between Eales’ book and Turner’s thesis are the ideas of unique change in the people of the frontier and the frontier creating a unique American. The differences between Turner and Eales’ thoughts are very minor, Turners talks about generalized change in the American man and his family, whereas Eales talks about the change in women .

Westward expansion will forever be a reminder of the horrors Native Americans endured for the sake of the country that never treated them justly to begin with. Likewise, one can see in document 5 the population of buffalo from 1800-1889, how it decreased drastically after the beginning of westward expansion. This elucidates that not only were Native Americans dealt with unjustly, but so were that which they held dear were dealt unjustly too. An important part of Native American culture revolved around the animals they would take care of, use for resources, and be apart of their daily lives. However, when westward expansion took place, Native Americans were not considered for, nor what

Firstly, the American Frontier was deemed “closed” by the United States Census Bureau due to, mostly, rampant white pioneers settling upon the land. The idea of the American Frontier being “open”, was due to

As Turner pointed out, his own views on how he believes that the American frontier was formed by the different characteristics of the people who made it happen and formed America. He states that the attraction to the frontier made a dramatic change to America and the West due to the different cultures each race brought unto the country allowing each one to accept as well change persons perspective of each others culture. (Turner, 1996.) The frontier helped everybody make a part of the history because of the necessities the frontier helped provide. It was and it continues to be a part of history because the frontier continues to change peoples life as they still continue

Introduction America would not have become a country if there were no invasions. In this work, there is a critical review of the book Warpaths written by Ian K. Steele. The author intends to inform his readers, the modern historians and anyone interested in reading his work, about the history of the North American continent. Steele uses inversions that occurred on the North American continent to elaborate the fact that were it not for them, America could not be what it is today. The author gives a remarkable recap of the history of the continent through its interactions with Europeans.

The contrasts between the American West and East in the nineteenth century range from a new start to the adventure of the living in the Wild West. The east had become overcrowded and did not allow much opportunity for people of lesser wealth. “In 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave a celebrated lecture, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” in which he argued that on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged: individual freedom, political democracy, and economic mobility. The West, he added, acted as a “safety

A pivotal key in the development of United States is defining what and where the West is located. There are many “wests” depending on how the west is defined, either by environmental, economic, cultural, or political factors (Steiner & Wrobel, 20). The West is unique in the sense that the story of the West has many beginnings. The first notable location of the West was first defined as anything west of the Mississippi River. As the nation expanded during the 19th century, the western territories were

Written in 1782 by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, this passage from Letter of an American Farmer was written for the purpose of showing poor, helpless Europeans how much better their life could be in America. America was a place where anyone could come and be accepted as an American despite their cultural, social, or personal background. There weren’t constant fights for superiority or wars over foolish things in America like there was in Europe. America was a giant melting pot of people all coming together to form one great and powerful nation. Crèvecoeur’s usage of powerful metaphors, description, and references make this a powerful essay to persuade poor Europeans that America is the place they should be calling their homeland.

During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

The poems “Tableau” by Countee Cullen and “Now and Then America” by Pat Mora display a common theme of following one’s own unique path. A person should not allow society and its standards to influence one’s individual beliefs. Figurative language, diction, and the poem’s structure are used to to demonstrate the theme of following one’s unique path. The poem “Tableau” uses figurative language through the use of simile “Now and Then America” uses figurative language through the form of personification. In “Tableau”, Cullen writes “That lightning brilliant as a sword/ Should blaze through the path of thunder” (819, 11-12).

Perhaps the most significant myth in American culture is that of the American frontier generated by the European encounters with the American West. The most noticeable part of the frontier myth is the mythic struggle between modern civilization and wilderness. Frontier is defined as “the meeting point between savagery and civilization”. Turner believes that the American frontier is closely related to American civilization and that frontier

In the 1800’s, America was the subject of many romantic visions and musings. The British and East Coasters alike saw everything west of Appalachia as a wild wonderland: home to cowboys, adventure, and opportunity. Oscar Wilde, a renowned British author and satirist, voyaged across America to test the truth of these claims. Afterwards, he published his findings and opinions in a piece known as Impressions of America. In the piece, he makes it clear that America did not live up to his expectations, and would disappoint his readers as well.

In 1782, French aristocrat J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, wrote an essay titled Letters of an American Farmer as a way of defining Americans. To persuade readers from countries unfamiliar with the American society is his purpose for writing this. Throughout he shows a feeling of admiration and respect towards the American way of life. In the first paragraph Crevecoeur starts with his claim that America is a “great asylum” put together by the “poor of Europe.”