American history concepts and overview

¶ … Frontier in American History

In what is believed to be the "single most important document in the history of America," Frederick Jackson Turner presented his Frontier thesis. The document, which is popularly known with the title 'The Significance of Frontier in American history' delineates the role played by frontier in the development of American history. The thesis was presented in Chicago in 1893, three years after the U.S. Census Bureau announced the closing of American Frontier.

Turner saw this as an opportunity to express his views on the impact of frontier on development of American history and character. Turner defined American frontier as "...the outer edge of the wave-- the meeting point between savagery and civilization." He argued that while frontier was important in various aspects, its significance in the development of American society, culture and character had been essentially ignored by academics. Turner explained that American development as initiated by having open frontier "begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on with the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader... The pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farm communities; the intensive culture of the denser farm settlement; and finally the manufacturing organization with the city and the factory system."

He contended that having an advancing frontier meant American people were regularly treated to a glimpse of the uncivilized world. Generations after generations were taken to uncharted territories every time America decided to expand just a little further. While Turner's frontier thesis was regarded as the single most influential document by some, modern academics have largely argued against his views on frontier claiming that other factors such as slavery, civil war, industrialization, capitalism, mass immigration etc. were more responsible for development of American history and character than frontier line.

The most forceful charge levied against Turner's thesis was its blatant disregard and apparent ignorance of the grave consequences of American expansion. Turner argued that European expansion was a phenomenon widely different from American advancement but he clearly failed to see the cruel similarities between the two. Expansion in both cases had resulted in uprooting of old tribes and societies that had been the rightful owners of the land that Europe and later American forcefully occupied. How Turner could ignore something so important is beyond most critics and scholars.