Frederick Jackson Turner: “The Significance of the Frontier”

Frederick Jackson Turner: “The Significance of the Frontier”
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The historian and founding father of Western history, Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893), is one of the most influential masterpieces that reflects American history and defines the relationship between the American culture and the frontier. In the essay, Turner contemplates what might result following a complete halt of the frontier. He articulated the last days of the American frontier. He called for a new frontier, laying the intellectual foundation for a new form of American foreign policy that directed the nation into Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Cuba, and Guam during the Spanish-American War. According to the thesis, the frontier shaped American society, institutions, and culture. The westward movement of pioneers to the Pacific Coast portrays an exceptional character that differentiates them from the Europeans. By “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Turner implied that the westward march of the founders from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast largely shaped American institutions, society, culture, and democracy.[Nathalie, Massip. The role of the West in the construction of American identity: from frontier to crossroads. Caliban: French Journal of English Studies. 31(2012), pp.239-248. https://doi.org/10.4000/caliban.486]
Frederick Jackson Turner is considered the founding father of Western history. He is known for his 1893 seminal essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” that he presented during the American Historical Association meeting. As one of the key documents of the United States historiography, the thesis has maintained a lasting impact in defining American development that is influenced by the existence of free land, advancement of the American settlement towards the West, and the continuous recession. By “frontier,” Turner implied the line experiencing the most rapid and effective process of Americanization. The line stand...