Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis

Question 1

Turner’s Frontier Thesis (1893)

Answer 1

• Illustrated by Frederick Jackson Turner
• Presented a conference paper entitled ‘The Significance of the Frontier in American History’
  *Turner’s Key Points:
• Ever since the US has been declared independent there’d always been ‘the existence of an area of free land’ (Wild West)
• Availability of vast land - acted as a safety valve against possible violence, anyone unhappy could always move to the West, therefore been no revolutions in US
• Harshness of frontier life created self-reliant nation, ‘rugged individualism’
• America’s development was different to Europe’s, no class hierarchy/aristocracy
• US was free/independent due to the abundance of natural resources available the West, didn’t need to depend on Europe

Question 2

Impact of the Frontier Thesis

Answer 2

• Turner encouraged people, notably presidents, to think that if frontiers made the USA unique, then perhaps the US should have new frontiers outside the geographic boundary of the nation
• Turner helped to create an idea/myth of the frontier lands that the West was ‘different’

Question 3

Historians Criticisms of the Frontier Thesis

Answer 3

• 1942, ‘The Frontier and American Institutions: A Criticism of the Turner Thesis’ - debated the validity, stated that there were many other factors influenced American culture, e.g. slavery, Civil War, industrialisation, etc
• 1949, ‘Westward Expansion, a History of the American Frontier: notes Turner never actually defines the frontier, points out immigration being a main factor
• Glenda Riley: argued thesis ignores women, directly led to the frontier becoming an exclusively male phenomenon
• Ignored race and Native/African Americans