The Significance Of The Frontier By Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson Turner s â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier† is, in his eyes, an accurate depiction of America s development since the Colonial Period. However, Turner s Frontier Thesis fails to discuss the involvement of two very specific groups of people, groups that certainly had too much of an effect on the progression of the country for him to safely leave out. Native Americans have a pivotal role in America s history, yet Turner s mentions of them in his thesis are extremely limited. For this reason, Frederick Jackson Turner s â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier† is not an accurate depiction of the history of the United States. Unlike the image that Turner represents in his Frontier Thesis, Native Americans played a large role in the formation of America s history. Turner continuously undermines their presence, referring to them mostly in passing and never giving their race much credit. When discussing the presence of different animals and people on the f rontier, he ranks them only one step above animals, saying â€Å"watch the procession of civilization marching single file – the buffalo following the trail to the salt springs, the Indian, the fur-trader and hunter, the cattle-raiser, the pioneer farmer – and the frontier has passed by.† In saying this, Turner is conveying the imagery that Indians are altogether their own species, not quite animals but neither human enough to be included in what he would consider the presence of man. Murphy s book Great LakesShow MoreRelatedFrederick Turner Jackson: Frontier Thesis1136 Words   |  5 Pages5/1/13 Band D East to West Frederick Turner Jackson, born in 1861, in Portage, Wisconsin, grew up in a time of severe social change, in a nation plagued with an identity crisis. Fascinated by the world around him, Turner chose to become a history professor, devoting his entire life to studying American culture/society while teaching at the University of Wisconsin and Harvard. Constantly having the opportunity to study and observe the development of the â€Å"American†, Turner wrote extensively, about whichRead MoreAmerican Imperialism : A Part Of United States History1463 Words   |  6 Pagespeople s land. Authors like Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Albert J. Beveridge, Mark Twain, and William James all distinctive perspectives on U.S expansion and imperialism at the turn of the 20th century. Frederick Jackson Turner was a young American historian. Turner s commitment to American history was to argue that the frontier past best explained the history of the United States. On 1893, he introduced his essay â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier in American History†, whose ideasRead MoreThe Frontier Thesis3825 Words   |  16 PagesThe Frontier Thesis Introduction The emergence of western history as an important field of scholarship started with Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1861-1932) famous essay â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier in American history.†[1] This thesis shaped both popular and scholarly views of the West for the next two generations. In his thesis, Turner argued that the West had to be taken seriously. He felt that up to his time there had not been enough research of what he in his essay call â€Å"the fundamentalRead MoreThe Frontier Of American History1116 Words   |  5 PagesIn the Significance of the Frontier in American History, Frederick Jackson Turner discusses the understanding of the West as a concept. Turner’s claims included that the expansion into the frontier fueled individualism, stimulated democracy and nationalism, and widened the opportunity of advancement. In the census of 1890, the frontier no longer had a place in the report because the previously unsettled areas had been brok en into areas of settlement. Turner uses the definition of two people per squareRead MoreResponse to Turners Essay on The Significance of the Frontier in American History501 Words   |  3 PagesResponse to Turners Essay on The Significance of the Frontier in American History Turners The Significance of the Frontier in American History essay presents the primary model for comprehending American history. Turner developed his notions on the uncovering of the 1890 census that the frontier was coming to an end, that the nation had occupied its continental borders. As Turner discusses in his essay, an extensive era of American development approached an ending, butRead MoreThe Westward Expansion Of The United States960 Words   |  4 PagesWest, it is essential to keep in mind the myths that arose around the settling of the West in the second half of the 19th century. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner described a uniquely American personality forged by the experience of taming the wilderness and critical to the success and growth of the United States. The daily life of living on the frontier was filled with hard work and difficulties. Farming was the backbone of the expansion west; once a farmer cleared the land, built a cabin andRead MoreFrederick Jackson Turner The Father Of The Frontier Summary899 Words   |  4 Pages Frederick Jackson Turner painted the picture of what is recognized today as American history with his Frontier Thesis, first introduced to the American Historical Association in Chicago in 1893 with his seminal paper â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier in American History,† where he calls the frontier â€Å"the line of most rapid and effective Americanization† (201). Turner, although he did not himself coin the phrase, may be appropriately named the father of â€Å"rugged individualism,† a prevailing understandingRead MoreThe United States Identity During The Gilded Age1259 Words   |  6 Pagesdreams of having free land, your own freedom, and wealth for all people infatuate the nation and those who hear of the frontier; these myths created a â€Å"golden gilding â€Å" which masks the actual turmoil and issues in the United States. In 1863, historian, Frederick Jackson Turner lectured, â€Å"‘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 mobilityRead MoreTurner and the Glorification of Westward Expansion Essay1634 Words   |  7 Pages1893 when Frederick Jackson Turner delivered his famous essay â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier in American History,† the United States had recently fulfilled the goal of Manifest Destiny by finishing its conquest of the West. Westward expansion had been an integral aspect of the American identity and its citizens were left wondering what would continue to propel the United States into the future. At the same time, people were also loo king back and trying to decide how exactly the frontier had shapedRead MoreEssay on Settlement of the West551 Words   |  3 Pagesland, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explains American development†. (PBS n.d.) By saying this Frederick Jackson Turner helped increase critical thinking about the west and helped historians understand the causes and affects it produced in the United States now and back then. The settling of the west was a great significance in the United States’ culture as well as characteristics. The settlement of the west was a huge movement after the American Civil War