However, Turner, in his quest to make a splash, leaps headfirst into frontier determinism and makes it the defining and shaping factor of all aspects of the standard American personality and polity. Even worse is Turner's belief in the linearity of history. Every time pioneers enter the frontier, they replay the same set of phases or actions taken by past generations of pioneers. Therefore, by studying events on the frontier, one can learn about the first settlers in the New World, or even about conditions in Europe. These evolutionary steps invariably involve man's relation with nature.
Progress takes place as civilization exerts itself.
The preceding arguments have gone a bit too far. I was trying to point out the inapplicability of using Turner as a secondary source. He is, more than just about any author I have ever read, entirely a product of his times. As a primary source, therefore, he is invaluable. Turner's arguments provide a fascinating case study of turn of the century attitudes towards a savage nature and a transforming civilization.