Accuricies of Turner\'s Frontier Thesis PDF

Preview

Summary

A synthesis of Fredrick Turner's Frontier Thesis and contrasting specific points in order to see if it has withstood the test of time....

Description

Martin, Adam 6059884 Dec. 2 2020 AMH 3317 Professor Luca

Fredrick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis and Its Accuracies Today

Fredrick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” was one of the most important aspects of sparking the nation’s interest in the mythos of the “Wild West”. It was Turner’s Frontier thesis that urged students of history to launch an extensive look into the era of the west. With more eyes on the history of the Frontier, it blew up the common household’s interest in American history during the 1890s when the Thesis was released. One need only to look at how Hollywood was gripped for decades on the western genre of films to see how the mythos of the Wild West intrigued all sorts of people, not only Americans. Needless to say the infatuation that Americans and those outside of the United States who delved into the Western Culture, come from Turner’s hyper-importanization of the Frontier as being integral to the United States of America’s development as a Nation. Turner’s primary reason for writing his Frontier Thesis was mostly due to his opinion that the Frontier was being overlooked by historians . While Fredrick Jackson Turner did shed light on the importance of the Frontier there were issues with his thesis, mostly having to do with American Exceptionalism. The belief that Americans are ‘greater’ than those living in other countries. This paper will be

discussing the “Frontier Thesis” and analyzing whether Turner’s thesis had an impact on the American character, Democratic ideals and the western culture of today.

The ‘American Character’ has a sense of gratitude to be paid towards the frontier . The Explorers, Frontiersman, Cowboys and Homesteaders all had developed these characteristics that come together and make the American Character as each respective wave ran through it. Characteristics associated with being an American can be directly linked to the Frontier. Our outlook towards being able to own a gun for instance, is an example of a characteristic we still value from the Frontier era. The iconography known around the world as a “Cowboy” is another example! No matter where one is in the western hemisphere, the odds of finding an individual who doesn’t know what a Cowboy looks would prove to be very difficult. Notorious films like “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” brought western culture to the screens of millions outside of The United States ! The usual person can identify what weapon a Cowboy uses, the usual attire and what vehicle method they would employ the most. The infamous “Shootout at O.K. Corral” spawned dozens of films based on the event itself, when the actual shootout didn't even occur at the O.K Corral. These films also draw out the gunfight to absurdly long times when in reality the shootout barely broke 30 seconds in length . It is this hyperdramatization to real events that has led to a specific iconography attached to the Wild West. This iconography embedded into our minds of what the Wild West was is made possible by the Frontier Thesis shedding light on the previously neglected Frontier .

Talking outside of Iconography, some of the most important aspects of the

American Character comes from the frontier. One of which continues to live on today is the concept of the American dream. With the frontier mainly consisting of the pursuit of land by going westward, the United States garnered a reputation for being able to make a life for yourself if you ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ . Now, today there isn’t land to settle down in anymore as we have things like Rent and Mortgage, but the reputation of America being the land of opportunity has not wavered . Take the film, “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), the dispute between the “self-made” cattle owners of Wyoming and the european immigrants is over the promise of “The American Dream”. Those cattle owners are protecting their property, their means of happiness. While the European Immigrants are searching for a better life, one that America is heralded to be able to provide. The millions of stories people share of working two or even three jobs to provide for their families is an example of how the American Dream, or at least the idea of it, is still alive today. The same resiliency it took to leave everything behind in pursuit of land in the west is very similar to the resiliency it takes the average person to get up in the morning and work the same job doing the same thing for years .

Another example of a characteristic from the American Character that 's tied to the Frontier is rugged individualism. The era of the gunslinger provided a fuel to the American Character that added a spontaneity of violence to solve disputes . In “Frontier Hero” from November 1911, Wild Bill Hickok reminisces on his old Friend Buffalo Bill. One story Hickock shares is of his childhood when a slightly older Buffalo Bill assaults a bully who is causing trouble with Hickock. Later in the same paper, when Buffalo Bill is traveling to New York, he assaults a carriage driver for overcharging him a few cents on

his ride. Granted, New York was not where the Frontier took place, Buffalo Bill in this case characterizes aspects of life on the Frontier . With those examples one can surmise that violence was the quickest way to resolve disputes in the age of the Frontier . Leading to Americans developing a sense of being ready to ‘draw’, pun intended, at any moment.

One point in the Frontier Thesis that Fredrick Jackson Turner was wrong about was his foretelling of the decline of Democratic ideals in the United States . Since the United States Census Bureau closed the Frontier, according to records from The White House, there have been 25 successful democratic elections held . The United States has arguably never enjoyed such basic forms of necessities that weren’t available then, like a ready 24/7 Healthcare system. Basic freedoms guaranteed by The Constitution of the United States like the right to bear arms and freedom of speech have still been championed throughout our existence as a nation. Although there have been some attempts to alter these inalienable rights and some groups have even campaigned against these very rights, our nation flies in the face of it all as a democracy . Another fault lying within Turner’s Thesis was his lack of acknowledgement that the land that was being sought on the Frontier, more often than not, was Native American land.

Turner’s thesis exclaims that “American energy will continually demand a wider field of its exercise.” Ever since the closing of the frontier and the publication of Turner’s Frontier thesis, the United States has expanded into Hawaii, Alaska and annexed other territories garnered by the Spanish-American War. To stretch out the farthest

implications of that one exclamation from Turner’s thesis, the United States deemed their efforts to expand outward into space as the Final Frontier . Turner managed to grasp a concept of the American spirit that if one were to look at American History , it is riddled with examples backing his claim. There are times where American Energy selfcannibalizes itself like how in the Vietnam and Iraq War , the American energy seemed misplaced and served for a mass expenditure of energy , money and resources in a haphazard attempt to ‘exercise’. The exercise of course was in Military power, one thing that the United States has always put first and foremost as its biggest asset .

In terms of Western culture in today’s climate, the frontier thesis serves a reminder, more than anything, of what American history consisted of and who we are. The meaning of the American Character today does bear resemblance to the character hyped up by the Frontier era. To say that both are the same would be a flaw in logic , considering that today we are much more learned than those who came before us . The fact that the thesis doesn’t account for the Native Americans whose land we essentially took from under them is a glaring flaw that many historians have. In today’s climate we remember those who we've stolen from during the Frontier era and perhaps too little too late. The assumption that The United States of America would subsequently decline after the closing of the Frontier proved to be wrong. Whereas Turner’s fundamental idea that American energy will always need a stage where it can be exercised was spot on. In Conclusion, Frederick Jackson Turner’s Thesis on the Frontier despite having glaring issues, such as neglecting the Natives, Turner’s Thesis still manages to successfully

characterize how the United States of America has tended to conduct their foreign policy as a Nation.

Bibliography

-Burns, Walter Noble "Frontier Hero - Reminiscences of Wild Bill Hickok by his old Friend Buffalo Bill." In The Blackfoot Optimist. Blackfoot, Idaho. (November 02, 1911), https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091195/1911-11-02/ed-1/seq-2/

- “Presidents.” The White House, The United States Government, www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/.

- “The Bison: from 30 Million to 325 (1884) to 500,000 (Today).” Flat Creek Inn, 10 Feb. 2018, www.flatcreekinn.com/bison-americas-mammal/....