[41], This assertions racial overtones concerned historians as Adolf Hitler and the Blood and soil ideology, stoking racial and destructive enthusiasm, rose to power in Germany. longer. " It explained why the American people and American government were so different from their European counterparts. Author: Frederick Jackson Turner. In the negotiations, Fish also suggested adding the Dominican Republic as a territorial possession with a path towards statehood, as well as discussing the construction of a transoceanic canal with Columbia. Alternatively, the United States would settle for the rights to Canada. The American frontier began when the British colonialists settled in North America in the 17th century and ended with the admission of New Mexico and Arizona in Fish spent much of his time settling international disputes involving American interests, including claims that British assistance to the Confederates prolonged the Civil War for about two years. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. Japan fascinated my heart and fancy four years ago, but now I honestly believe I love China the best, and actually, which is stranger still, like the Chinese best. Later Walker D. Wyman and Clifton B. Kroeber, eds. 0000100879 00000 n Etulain, Richard W. and Gerald D. Nash, eds. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). As a result of these growing economic pressures, American exports to other nations skyrocketed in the years following the Civil War, from $234 million in 1865 to $605 million in 1875. [35] However his ideas presented in his graduate seminars at Wisconsin and Harvard influenced many areas of historiography. %(]YK" PXQ^VNmlao{Fs! The initial work of businesses, missionaries, and reformers set the stage by the early 1890s for advocates of an expanded foreign policy and a vision of an American empire. [34], Turner never published a major book on the frontier for which he did 40 years of research. According to Turner, American progress has repeatedly undergone a cyclical process on the frontier line as society has needed to redevelop with its movement westward. I spent a week here last fall and of course feel very natural to be here again. popular and scholarly views of the West (and of much else) for two generations. WebIn 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner presented his thesis, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" at Columbian Exposition in Chicago. ;OLs oUo]t}1{Mi0-t.k~5[ZR&^Urub-Q{8a'[W_) S>kkOon.a,:">^DA*C={kWt7(p,gm@~op*^d:B|ujC| =QKU7'W%VTL+f,Iy=Y|E J;m8PP%uquRiC5[|i3kuaQa?j WebAnd now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Lotties combination of moral certainty and selfless service was emblematic of the missionary zeal of the early American empire. 2 Ibid., 2. Most notably, in 1867, Seward obtained the Alaskan Territory from Russia for a purchase price of $7.2 million. Sewards successor as Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, held the position from 1869 through 1877. Up to our own day Only if gold were to be found, the editors decried, would the secretive purchase be justified. Turner stated his thesis simply. Turner referred to the Germanic germ theory by name in his essay, claiming that too exclusive attention has been paid by institutional students to the Germanic origins.[9] Turner believed that historians should focus on the settlers struggle with the frontier as the catalyst for the creation of American character, not racial or hereditary traits. [24] Each nation had quite different frontier experiences. They also became more violent, more individualistic, more distrustful of authority, less artistic, less scientific, and more dependent on ad-hoc organizations they formed themselves. [50][51] Scholars analyzing the Internet have often cited Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier model. Led by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, among several other organizations, missionaries conflated Christian ethics with American virtues, and began to spread both gospels with zeal. The process of westward expansion had transformed a desolate and savage Therefore, Andrew Jacksons brand of popular democracy was a triumph of the frontier. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports. While the United States slowly pushed outward and sought to absorb the borderlands (and the indigenous cultures that lived there), the country was also changing how it functioned. Closing the Frontier: Radical Response in Oklahoma, 1889-1923 Hardcover January 1, 1986 . "[29] Historians adopted it, especially in studies of the west,[30] but also in other areas, such as the influential work of Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (19182007) in business history. Finally, Mahan urged the future construction of a canal across the isthmus of Central America, which would decrease by two-thirds the time and power required to move the new navy from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans. duP+ h0'$1e=T)S!H#PhB While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. ", Bazzi, Samuel, Martin Fiszbein, and Mesay Gebresilasse. . [43], Subsequent critics, historians, and politicians have suggested that other 'frontiers,' such as scientific innovation, could serve similar functions in American development. Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE 0000120585 00000 n https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Jackson-Turner, Wisconsin Life - Frederick Jackson Turner and the History of the American West, Weber State University - Biography of Frederick Jackson Turner, National Humanities Center - The Significance of the Frontier in American History 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The most important aspect of the frontier to Turner is its effect on democracy. 0000099528 00000 n 0000092338 00000 n The frontier, they argued, shaped uniquely American institutions such as revivals, camp meetings, and itinerant preaching. WebAnd now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period WebThe first is by transcending the region-frontier divide. The Frontier Thesis or Turner's Thesis (also American frontierism) is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that a settler colonial exceptionalism, under the guise of American democracy, was formed by the appropriation of the rugged American frontier. By 1870, missionaries abroad spent as much time advocating for the American version of a modern civilization as they did teaching the Bible. Academic & Personal: 24 hour online access, Corporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online access, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wem.2023.04.008, The Wilderness Medical Society: Looking Backward, Looking Forward, For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal', For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'. He traced the social evolution of frontier life as it continually developed across the continent from the primitive conditions experienced by the explorer, trapper, and trader, through maturing agricultural stages, finally reaching the complexity of city and factory. Quinn R.H. Rodway G.W. [37], Slatta (2001) argues that the widespread popularization of Turner's frontier thesis influenced popular histories, motion pictures, and novels, which characterize the West in terms of individualism, frontier violence, and rough justice. ", Extra Census Bulletin No. An example of this concern is in George Wilson Piersons influential essay on the frontier. Despite such widespread isolationist impulses and the sheer inability to maintain a strong international position, the United States moved ahead sporadically with a modest foreign policy agenda in the three decades following the Civil War. The Frontier Thesis or Turner's Thesis (also American frontierism) is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that a settler colonial exceptionalism, under the guise of American democracy, was formed by the appropriation of the rugged American frontier. According to Turner, what separated Americans from Europeans was the constant availability of new land to the west. While the navy had introduced the first all-steel, triple-hulled steam engine vessels seven years earlier, they had only thirteen of them in operation by 1890. The content on this site is intended for healthcare professionals. 0000118728 00000 n In his speech, Turner maintained that the frontierthat region just beyond or at the edge of a settled areawashed away all European influences and created a distinctive American character. To read this article in full you will need to make a payment. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. In 1893 a young historian addressed the American Historical Association, which was meeting at the Columbian Exposition in Turner hoped that stability would replace mobility as a defining factor in the development of American society and that communities would become stronger as a result. entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." Whether oversees or in the urban slums, they benefitted from the same passions but expressed the same paternalism. WebIn 1893, three years after the superintendent of the Census announced that the western frontier was closed, Frederick Jackson Turner, a historian from the University of For a scholar of such wide influence, Turner wrote relatively few books. WebIn 1890, the U.S. Census revealed that the frontier (defined as fewer than two people per square mile) was closed. Whereas in his 1893 essay he celebrated the pioneers for the spirit of individualism that spurred migration westward, 25 years later Turner castigated these slashers of the forest, these self-sufficing pioneers, raising the corn and livestock for their own need, living scattered and apart. For Turner the national problem was no longer how to cut and burn away the vast screen of the dense and daunting forest but how to save and wisely use the remaining timber. At the end of his career, he stressed the vital role that regionalism would play in counteracting the atomization brought about by the frontier experience. 0000099235 00000 n Although there was no more room for these forces to proceed domestically, they would continue to find an outlet on the international stage. The question is whether their frontiers were powerful enough to overcome conservative central forces based in the metropolis. . "Frederick Jackson Turner Overlooked the Ladies. Turner concluded that the demands for a vigorous foreign policy, for an interoceanic canal, for a revival of our power upon our seas, and for the extension of American influence to outlying islands and adjoining countries are indications that the forces [of expansion] will continue. Such policies would permit Americans to find new markets. The United States also began to expand its influence to other Pacific Islands, most notably Samoa and Hawaii. It was presented to a special meeting of the American Historical Association at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, and published later that year first in Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, then in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association. [52][53][54] Of special concern is the question whether the electronic frontier will broadly replicate the stages of development of the American land frontier. 0000019219 00000 n WebThis brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Wilderness Environ Med. A year after the Oklahoma Land Rush, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the frontier was closed. Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 March 14, 1932) was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the University of Wisconsin until 1910, and then Harvard University. He was known primarily for his frontier thesis. He trained many PhDs who became well-known historians. Religious institutions from the eastern seaboard, in particular, battled for possession of the West. [12], Turner and Roosevelt diverged on the exact aspect of frontier life that shaped the contemporary American. Westward Expansion, 1840-1900, Chapter 18: Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900, Chapter 19: The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900, Chapter 20: Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900, Chapter 21: Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920, Chapter 23: Americans and the Great War, 1914-1919, Chapter 24: The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929, Chapter 25: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? 0000019771 00000 n -Charlotte Lottie Moon, 1877. Such an increased investment in overseas markets in turn strengthened Americans interest in foreign affairs. 0000090328 00000 n It currently publishes more than 6,000 new publications a year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs more than 5,500 people worldwide. In the United States, several newspaper editors openly questioned the purchase and labeled it Sewards Folly (Figure 22.3). WebFrederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" 1893 This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Milton Stanley Livingston, the lab's associate director, said in 1968, "The frontier of high energy and the infinitesimally small is a challenge to the mind of man. The Turner Thesis was also critiqued by Patricia Nelson Limerick in her 1987 book, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. ", Carpenter, Ronald H. "Frederick Jackson Turner and the rhetorical impact of the frontier thesis. 2023 Wilderness Medical Society. Micheaux promoted the West as a place where blacks could experience less institutionalized forms of racism and earn economic success through hard work and perseverance. Turner's ideal of frontier had no need for standing armies, established churches, aristocrats or nobles; there was no landed gentry who controlled the land or charged heavy rents and fees. . :mx?6zj 'm=H*.\U{j;] ~ H8Fk?<6,H'iM*m*m/pY8!_9s1-F{mM{V 0000056277 00000 n They emphasized the values of individualism, empiricism, simplicity, equality, courage, discovery, independence, and naturalism in the service of democratic access, human rights, ecological balance, and the resolution of social, economic, and political issues. WebBy that reasoning, the closing of the frontier would make the US an industrial nation like those of Europe. While certainly not all reformers espoused a racist view of intelligence and civilization, many of these reformers believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was mentally superior to others and owed the presumed less evolved populations their stewardship and social uplift-a service the British writer Rudyard Kipling termed the white mans burden.. In the 1980s a new approach to the Western U.S. appeared which was much more negative. Turners penetrating analyses of American history and culture were powerfully influential and changed the direction of much American historical writing. ", Limerick, Patricia Nelson. 0000121472 00000 n -- Georgia's destiny / E. Merton Coulter. Frontier land was practically free for the taking according to Turner. 0000033334 00000 n The follow-up to that study, The United States, 18301850: The Nation and Its Sections (1935), would not be published until after his death. Her letter campaign back to the head of the Mission Board provided a vivid picture of life in China and exhorted the Southern Baptist women to give more generously of their money and their time. 0000119667 00000 n He stressed the process of "winning a wilderness" to extend the frontier line further for U.S. colonization, and the impact this had on pioneer culture and character. Rebelling against this view, Turner argued instead that Europeans had been transformed by the process of settling the American continent and that what was unique about the United States was its frontier history. The Frontier, both the physical land and the ideological idea of it, Turner said, had infused American society with a unique blend of European refinement and untamed coarseness. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. in Alan Brinkley, American History: A Survey, Chapter 16), http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/isern/103/turner.htm. This was particularly true among women missionaries, who composed over 60 percent of the overall missionary force. On the tide of the Father of Waters, North and South met and mingled into a nation. [3], Turner's emphasis on the importance of the frontier in shaping American character influenced the interpretation found in thousands of scholarly histories. [3] By contrast, medievalist Nora Berend asked: "What good is a concept not very clearly formulated a hundred years agoTurners frontier was an elastic term that had no sharp definitionand severely criticised ever since?"[4]. If we can reach and cross this frontier, our generations will have furnished a significant milestone in human history."[49]. By trying to help people in less industrialized countries achieve a higher standard of living and a better understanding of the principles of democracy, reformers hoped to contribute to a noble cause, but their approach suffered from the same paternalism that hampered Progressive reforms at home. Turner (Figure 22.4) and naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan were instrumental in the countrys move toward foreign expansion, and writer Brooks Adams further dramatized the consequences of the nations loss of its frontier in his The Law of Civilization and Decay in 1895. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Frederick Jackson Turner 239. In The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893) he asserted that the American character had been shaped by frontier life and the end of the frontier era. The public has ignored academic historians' anti-Turnerian models, largely because they conflict with and often destroy the icons of Western heritage. Turner saw the closing of the Frontier as an end to an era of expansionism and development of Americans character. Whereas Turner saw the development of American character occur just behind the frontier line, as the colonists tamed and tilled the land, Roosevelt saw it form in battles just beyond the frontier line. The end of the frontier era of continental expansion, Turner reasoned, had thrown the nation back upon itself. Writing that imperious will and force had to be replaced by social reorganization, he called for an expanded system of educational opportunity that would supplant the geographic mobility of the frontier. It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time it touched a new frontier. Also mindful of the mitigating influence of a frontier-in terms of easing pressure from increased immigration and population expansion in the eastern and midwestern United States-he encouraged new outlets for further population growth, whether as lands for further American settlement or to accommodate more immigrants. With his announcement of the "closing" of the frontier, moreover, Turner implied that the nation would be forced to undergo a painful transition, from a perception of America as a land of endless boundaries, to one which required Americans to accept that their nation was finally a closed-space world, replete with the limitations inherent therein. Proponents of the germ theory believed that political habits are determined by innate racial attributes. The "Turner Everything in American history up to the 1880s somehow relates the western frontier, including slavery. Each issue contains reviews and notices of significant books in the field, as well as bibliographic lists of recent articles and dissertations. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. The Significance of the Frontier in American History, Samuel Bazzi, Martin Fiszbein, and Mesay Gebresilasse. John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Theodore Sorensen. Otten E. Wilderness medicine quo vadis? He noted that for nearly three centuries the dominant fact in American life has been expansion. He continued: American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise.. His deep, melodious voice commanded attention whether he was addressing a teachers group, an audience of alumni, or a branch of the Chautauqua movement. 0000102667 00000 n "American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried in the Susan Constant to Virginia, nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. Editors of such magazines as Century, Outlook, and Harpers supported an imperialistic stance as the democratic responsibility of the United States. nation as a whole. WebAnd now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history. "the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the Western Historical Quarterly [42], Despite Pierson and other scholars work, Turners influence did not end during World War II or even after the war. -- Speech before the Senate (April 9, 1830) / Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen. Instead Fermilab's planners sought to return to Turnerian themes. Urban historian Richard C. Wade challenged the Frontier Thesis in his first asset, The Urban Frontier (1959), asserting that western cities such as Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati, not the farmer pioneers, were the catalysts for western expansion. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The advance of the Georgia frontier / Frederick Jackson Turner. pHH=B5BBEFp32(rsM$5$QPftJ@"dtLR5J&(d2E e /deaNU&@P+**}JLTkrMdkFEp3_aM,DAj%$'.&Am 70EQxauku^RgOym]e6}i u;9yx:Qr\p. Founded in 1969, The Western Historical Quarterly, the official journal of the Western History Association, presents original scholarly articles dealing with the North American West - the westward movement from the Atlantic to the Pacific, twentieth-century regional studies, the Spanish borderlands, Native American history, and developments in western Canada, northern Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii. ", Cronon, William. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Settling Limerick asserts the notion of a "New Western History" in which the American West is treated as a place and not a process of finite expansion. The United States had similar strategic interests in the Samoan Islands of the South Pacific, most notably, access to the naval refueling station at Pago Pago where American merchant vessels as well as naval ships could take on food, fuel, and supplies. The farther West Americans pushed (the farther into the Frontier they went) the more unique of an American identity developed. generation, and it shaped the writing of western American history for even Explore the controversy associated with Turners Frontier Thesis at U.S. History Scene. As was the case elsewhere in the American borderlands, Alaskas industrial development wreaked havoc on the regions indigenous and Russian cultures. The Frontier In American History by Frederick Turner: Franklin Library 1977 (LE) Frederick Jackson Turner. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "On Modernizing Frederick Jackson Turner,", This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 16:57. Below is the article summary. Omissions? [14][15] The first settlers who arrived on the east coast in the 17th century acted and thought like Europeans. Free shipping for many products! The English Empire, 16601763, Chapter 5: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774, Chapter 6: America's War for Independence, 1775-1783, Chapter 7: Creating Republican Governments, 17761790, Chapter 8: Growing Pains: The New Republic, 17901820, Chapter 9: Industrial Transformation in the North, 18001850, Chapter 10: Jacksonian Democracy, 18201840, Chapter 11: A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 18001860, Chapter 12: Cotton is King: The Antebellum South, 18001860, Chapter 13: Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 18201860, Chapter 14: Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s, Chapter 16: The Era of Reconstruction,1865-1877, Chapter 17: Go West Young Man! Limerick pushes for a continuation of study within the historical and social atmosphere of the American West, which she believes did not end in 1890, but rather continues on to this very day. 1-4,22-23,29-31,32,37-38. WebIt was the frontier of Europe in a very real sense. Eager to be tested in international conflict, these new leaders hoped to prove Americas might on a global stage. The frontier line, which separates civilization from wilderness, is the most rapid and effective Americanization on the continent; it takes the European from across the Atlantic and shapes him into something new. In these so-called Alabama claims, a U.S. senator charged that the Confederacy won a number of crucial battles with the help of one British cruiser and demanded $2 billion in British reparations. Her letters appeared frequently in religious publications, and it was her suggestion-that the week before Christmas be established as a time to donate to foreign missions-that led to the annual Christmas giving tradition. 0000002314 00000 n Though Roosevelt would later accept Turners historiography on the West, calling Turners work a correction or supplementation of his own, the two certainly contradict. WebGalena, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, 1890 frontier of the seventeenth century; the Alleghanies that of the eighteenth; the Mississippi that of the first quarter of the "Frontier culture: The roots and persistence of rugged individualism in the United States. As a naval power, the country catapulted to the third strongest in world rankings by military experts, trailing only Spain and Great Britain. Other historians, who wanted to focus scholarship on minorities, especially Native Americans and Hispanics, started in the 1970s to criticize the frontier thesis because it did not attempt to explain the evolution of those groups. In press. 1981 Oxford University Press WebIn The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893) he asserted that the American character had been shaped by frontier life and the end of the frontier era. Publisher. 0000020789 00000 n Though Turners view would win over the Germanic germ theorys version of Western history, the theory persisted for decades after Turners thesis enraptured the American Historical Association. Fearing future loss of the territory through military conflict, as well as desiring to create challenges for Great Britain (which they had fought in the Crimean War), Russia had happily accepted the American purchase offer. Web" The Significance of the Frontier in American History " is a seminal essay by the American historian Frederick Jackson Turner which advanced the Frontier thesis of American history. [1] Turner's text follows in a long line of thought within the framework of Manifest Destiny established decades earlier. Omissions? To Roosevelt, the journey westward was one of nonstop encounters with the hostile races and cultures of the New World, forcing the early colonists to defend themselves as they pressed forward. She argues that his context and upbringing led him to ignore the female portion of society, which directly led to the frontier becoming an exclusively male phenomenon. "Frontier culture: The roots and persistence of rugged individualism in the United States. [36] Moos (2002) shows that the 1910s to 1940s black filmmaker and novelist Oscar Micheaux incorporated Turner's frontier thesis into his work. 0000033105 00000 n However, others viewed this interpretation as the impetus for a new wave in the history of United States imperialism. delivered at a meeting of the American Historical Association in 1893. Historian and ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft articulated the latest iteration of the Germanic germ theory just three years before Turners paper in 1893.
