“The Significance of the Frontier in American History” http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/empire/text1/turner.pdf
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Created: March 12, 2024
Last Updated: March 12, 2024
Meeting of Frontiers was a project, originally funded by the United States Congress, devoted to the theme of the exploration and settlement of the American West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. You can find more information about the project here as well as the related digital collection.
A conference dedicated to "Meeting of Frontiers" was held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2001, taking place over three days from May 17th to May 19th. The event was sponsored by the Library of Congress, the Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Open Institute of Russia and the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Bringing together scholars and experts from the United States and Russia, the conference featured presentations related to the themes of "Meeting of Frontiers," such as Russian and American frontier history, the Russian-American company and Russian Orthodoxy in Siberia and Alaska.
This guide contains the presentations given at the "Meetings of Frontiers" conference. There are presentations in English and Russian. The presentations are organized according to the sessions of the conference. It should be noted that Session III of the conference consisted of a live demonstration of the "Meeting of Frontiers" website and, thus, is not represented in the guide.
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The frontier is a multifaceted, emotionally charged, and contested term in American socio-political discourse. It refers, first of all, to a line : it was the line which divided, throughout the period of westward expansion, the conquered parts of the country from those still free of white population. Over the 18th and 19th centuries, the frontier represented the outermost line of settlement, separating white civilization from the wilderness.
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Slotkin, Richard (1985): The Fatal Environment. The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890 . New York: Atheneum.
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Turner, Frederick Jackson ([1910] 1920): Social Forces in American History. In The Frontier in American History . New York: Henry Holt, 311–334.
Turner, Frederick Jackson ([1914] 1920): The West and American Ideals. In The Frontier in American History . New York: Henry Holt, 290–310.
U.S. Census Office, 11th Census, 1890, Distribution of Population According to Density: 1890, Extra Census Bulletin No. 2, Washington, April 1891.
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Worster, Donald (1992): Under Western Skies. Nature and History in the American West . New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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CIFE – Centre International de Formation Européenne, Berlin, Germany
Matthias Waechter
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Correspondence to Matthias Waechter .
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Dekra Hochschule für Medien, Berlin, Germany
Marcus Stiglegger
Geographisches Institut, Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Anton Escher
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© 2019 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature
Waechter, M. (2019). The Frontier Theory in American Cultural Studies: From Frederick Jackson Turner to Richard Slotkin. In: Stiglegger, M., Escher, A. (eds) Mediale Topographien. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23008-1_1
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23008-1_1
Published : 24 October 2019
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Imperial America: U.S. Global Expansion, 1890-1915
COMMENTS
The Frontier Thesis, also known as Turner's Thesis or American frontierism, is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that the settlement and colonization of the rugged American frontier was decisive in forming the culture of American democracy and distinguishing it from European nations. He stressed the process of "winning a wilderness" to extend the frontier line ...
The first frontier had to meet its Indian question, its question of the disposition of the public domain, of the means of intercourse with older settlements, of the extension of political organization, of religious and educational activity. And the settlement of these and similar questions for one frontier served as a guide for the next. . . .
Turner's frontier thesis, perhaps the most famous theory in American history, argued that the closing of the American frontier in the 1890 census, which stated that there no longer was a frontier ...
The "frontier thesis" essentially is that the United States is unique because it has always had a frontier with "free land" available. For this reason, people have always been able to move ...
American frontier. history of United States. Frederick Jackson Turner (born November 14, 1861, Portage, Wisconsin, U.S.—died March 14, 1932, San Marino, California) was an American historian best known for the " frontier thesis.". The single most influential interpretation of the American past, it proposed that the distinctiveness of the ...
The Frontier Thesis was still wildly popular, and the differences he now identified within and between the regions were, he was told, withering away in the face of the unifying forces of the ...
This frontier thesis was able to transmit a series of symbols that became imbedded in the nation's self‐perception and self‐understanding: Virgin land, wilderness, land and democracy, Manifest Destiny, chosen race. ... The historical literature that has debated these and other questions has been quite abundant 24 Close and, despite its ...
William James on "The Philippine Question" (1903) Mark Twain, "The War Prayer" (ca.1904-5) Chinese Immigrants Confront Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1885, 1903) ... on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" defined for many Americans the relationship between the frontier and American culture and contemplated what might ...
The Turner thesis reigned almost un¬ challenged until the early 1930 s. Since then a growing revolt has spread as one scholar after another has trained his heaviest guns on various aspects of the frontier hypothesis. The readings provide. sampling of the chief criticisms which have been raised.
Frederick Jackson Turner. " 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. Turner's thesis had a significant impact on how people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries understood American identity, character ...
tory": after all "Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time." Frontier Democracy: The Turner Thesis Revisited. Lacy K. Ford, Jr. The one-hundredth anniversary of Frederick Jackson Turner's pres- entation of his pathbreaking essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History ...
Put the diverse humanity of Western America into one picture, and the "melting pot" of the Eastern United States at the turn of the century begins to look more like a family reunion, a meeting of groups with an essential similarity- dominantly European, Judeo- Christian, accustomed to the existence of the modern state.
Turner's frontier thesis describes "the farmer's advance," waves of settlement in the westward migration. Turner says the pioneer is involved in the first wave. Pioneers farm, support their ...
FJ Turner, Frontier Thesis. In the settlement of America we have to observe how European life entered the continent, and how America modified and developed that life and reacted on Europe. . . . [T]he frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist.
derick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History. 1893This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American h. story has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous rece.
Terms in this set (4) What did the thesis focus on? The role of the fronttier on American history and growth. What was argued in the thesis related to America? The frontier played the most significant role in American history, all major events in history have been someway involved with the fronttier. What was the main point of the thesis?
In this essay, Turner argued that the frontier shaped key elements of the American experience. Turner's Frontier Thesis stimulated an intense debate among historians about the American character in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Sourcing Questions. Who wrote this document? Who was the author's audience?
Turner's thesis was that the presence of the frontier had had an enormous impact on the history of the nation and the character of its people: "to the frontier [that] the American intellect owes ...
The frontier took the settler with his European dress and manner and "stripped off the garments of civilization" The frontier was initially too strong for the man; eventually the man was able to transform the wilderness. ... Turner's Frontier Thesis was the prevailing view of the frontier taught in American schools and colleges until the mid ...
The frontier is a multifaceted, emotionally charged, and contested term in American socio-political discourse. It refers, first of all, to a line: it was the line which divided, throughout the period of westward expansion, the conquered parts of the country from those still free of white population.Over the 18th and 19th centuries, the frontier represented the outermost line of settlement ...
problem with the Turner Thesis. Who was Frederick Jackson Turner? a young historian that gave a famous speech in 1893 about the frontier. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like define "frontier", what is the Turner Thesis?, what is the impact of the frontier on the government? and more.
1. One of the important questions Frederick Jackson Turner raises in his 'The Significance of the Frontier in American History' thesis is: Why settlers didn't own land. How Americans will adjust ...
The Frontier Thesis or Turner Thesis, is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that American democracy was formed by the American frontier. He stressed the process—the moving frontier line—and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process. Frederick Jackson Turner.
What was Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis"? February 19, 2021. Analysis of "American Progress" by John Gast (1872) February 19, 2021. How did U.S. political cartoons attempt to justify U.S. imperialism? February 19, 2021. How were the U.S. wars to colonize Native American territory similar to the Philippine-American War? February 19 ...