num_pages: 29
description:  Turner announced the frontier thesis is a scholarly paper in 1893, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" read to the American Historical Association in Chicago. Turner expounded an evolutionary model; he had been influenced by work with geologists at Wisconsin. The West, not the East, was where distinctively American characteristics emerged. As each generation of pioneers moved 50-100 miles west, they abandoned useless European practices, institutions &amp; ideas, finding new solutions to new problems created by their new environment. The frontier proves over multiple generations produced characteristics of informality, violence, crudeness, democracy &amp; initiative that the world recognized as "American."  Turner's ideas impacted many areas of historiography. In the history of religion, for example Boles (1993) notes that Wm Warren Sweet at the University of Chicago Divinity School, argued that churches adapted to the characteristics of the frontier, creating new denominations such as the Mormons, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ &amp; the Cumberland Presbyterians. The frontier, they argued, shaped uniquely American institutions such as revivals, camp meetings &amp; itinerant preaching. This view dominated religious historiography for decades. Moos (2002) shows that 1910s to '40s black filmmaker &amp; novelist Oscar Micheaux incorporated Turner's frontier thesis into his work. Micheaux promoted the West as a place where blacks could transcend race &amp; earn economic success thru hard work &amp; perseverance. Slatta (2001) argues that the widespread popularization of Turner's frontier thesis impacted popular histories, motion pictures &amp; novels. They characterize the West in terms of individualism, frontier violence &amp; rough justice. Disneyland's Frontierland of the late 20th century reflected the myth of rugged individualism that celebrated what was perceived to be the American heritage. The public has ignored academic historians' anti-Turnerian models, largely because they conflict with &amp; often destroy the icons of Western heritage. However, the work of historians during the 1980s-'90s, some of whom sought to bury Turner's conception of the frontier &amp; others who have sought to spare the concept while presenting a more balanced &amp; nuanced view, have done much to place Western myths in context &amp; rescue Western history from them. Turner ignored gender &amp; race, downplayed class &amp; left no room for victims. His values represented a challenge to historians of the '60s &amp; later who stressed that race, class &amp; gender were all-powerful explanatory tools. The new generation has stressed gender, ethnicity, professional categorization &amp; the contrasting victor &amp; victim legacies of manifest destiny &amp; imperialist expansion. Some criticized Turner's frontier thesis &amp; the theme of American exceptionalism. The disunity of the concept of the West, the similarity of American expansion to European colonialism &amp; imperialism in the 19th century, &amp; the realities of minority group oppression revealed the limits of Turnerian &amp; exceptionalist paradigms.
language: English
title: Significance of the Frontier in American History
titlecomplete: Significance of the Frontier in American History
genres: American, United States, Philosophy, Westerns, Nonfiction, Essays, American History, Classics, Sociology, History
ratings_count: 206
publisher: Irvington Pub