The Frontier Experience and the American Dream

The Frontier Experience and the American Dream PDF Author: David Mogen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Beyond the mountains that separated the English colonies from the Great Plains lay the frontier, which produced a set of images, attitudes, and assumptions that have shaped a peculiarly American literary heritage. The eighteen scholars represented here focus on the importance of frontier mythology to many American writers.

The Frontier Experience and the American Dream

The Frontier Experience and the American Dream PDF Author: David Mogen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Beyond the mountains that separated the English colonies from the Great Plains lay the frontier, which produced a set of images, attitudes, and assumptions that have shaped a peculiarly American literary heritage. The eighteen scholars represented here focus on the importance of frontier mythology to many American writers.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The Significance of the Frontier in American History PDF Author: Joanna Dee Das
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351351648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay on the history of the United States remains one of the most famous and influential works in the American canon. That is a testament to Turner's powers of creative synthesis; in a few short pages, he succeeded in redefining the way in which whole generations of Americans understood the manner in which their country was shaped, and their own character moulded, by the frontier experience. It is largely thanks to Turner's influence that the idea of America as the home of a sturdily independent people – one prepared, ultimately, to obtain justice for themselves if they could not find it elsewhere – was born. The impact of these ideas can still be felt today: in many Americans' suspicion of "big government," in their attachment to guns – even in Star Trek's vision of space as "the final frontier." Turner's thesis may now be criticised as limited (in its exclusion of women) and over-stated (in its focus on the western frontier). That it redefined an issue in a highly impactful way – and that it did so exceptionally eloquently – cannot be doubted.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The Significance of the Frontier in American History PDF Author: Frederick Jackson Turner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781614275725
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
2014 Reprint of 1894 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. The "Frontier Thesis" or "Turner Thesis," is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1894 that American democracy was formed by the American Frontier. He stressed the process-the moving frontier line-and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process. He also stressed consequences of a ostensibly limitless frontier and that American democracy and egalitarianism were the principle results. In Turner's thesis the American frontier established liberty by releasing Americans from European mindsets and eroding old, dysfunctional customs. The frontier had no need for standing armies, established churches, aristocrats or nobles, nor for landed gentry who controlled most of the land and charged heavy rents. Frontier land was free for the taking. Turner first announced his thesis in a paper entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," delivered to the American Historical Association in 1893 in Chicago. He won very wide acclaim among historians and intellectuals. Turner's emphasis on the importance of the frontier in shaping American character influenced the interpretation found in thousands of scholarly histories. By the time Turner died in 1932, 60% of the leading history departments in the U.S. were teaching courses in frontier history along Turnerian lines.

Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional?

Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional? PDF Author: Richard W. Etulain
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
ISBN: 9780312183097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
Does the frontier experience make America exceptional? When Frederick Jackson Turner presented this idea in 1893 as the core of his now-famous thesis, he set in motion a debate that historians of the American West have contended with ever since. The concept of a frontier, a moving boundary that defined civilization and circumscribed the Wild West, was not new — though the idea that it made Americans unique was. Turner's paper is reprinted in its entirety, followed by articles by three "New Western" historians who bring the dialogue up to the present day by applying modern concerns to this long-standing issue. The last selection looks forward, asking what Turner's ideas mean for America as we head into the twenty-first century.

The Frontier in American History

The Frontier in American History PDF Author: Frederick Jackson Turner
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In Frederick Jackson Turner's influential work, 'The Frontier in American History', the author delves into the significance of the American frontier in shaping the nation's identity and character. Written in a scholarly and meticulously researched fashion, Turner explores how the frontier experience influenced American social, political, and economic development during the 19th century. Through detailed analysis and compelling arguments, he highlights the frontier as a key factor in the formation of the American spirit and democracy. The book's literary style is academic yet accessible, making it a cornerstone in the study of American history and culture. Frederick Jackson Turner, a renowned historian and professor, was inspired to write this groundbreaking book after extensive research on the impact of the frontier on American society. His innovative thesis sparked debates and shaped the field of American historiography for years to come. Turner's expertise and passion for the subject shine through in his comprehensive examination of the frontier's profound influence on the American psyche. I highly recommend 'The Frontier in American History' to readers interested in the development of the United States and the factors that contributed to its unique national character. Turner's groundbreaking work offers valuable insights into the shaping of American culture and provides a compelling narrative that continues to resonate with scholars and history enthusiasts alike.

Reading the American Past + Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional?

Reading the American Past + Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional? PDF Author: Michael P. Johnson
Publisher: Bedford/st Martins
ISBN: 9781457659775
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Ill-Fated Frontier

Ill-Fated Frontier PDF Author: Samuel Forman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493044621
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Ill-Fated Frontier is at once a pioneer adventure and a compelling narrative of the frictions that emerged among entrepreneurial pioneers and their sixty slaves, Indians fighting to preserve their land, and Spanish colonials with their own agenda. Here is a lively and visceral portrait of the wild and enduring American frontier in 1789. The melting pot America would become was barely simmering when an ill-fated attempt to settle land near Natchez in brought together a volatile mix of ambitious Northern pioneers and their slaves, Spanish colonists, and Native Americans who had claimed the land as theirs for hundreds of years. This illuminating episode in American history comes to life in this account of an expedition gone wrong. It began with an optimistic plan to settle and expand in the new territory. It ended ignominiously, with the body of one of the expedition’s leaders returning to New Jersey stored in a pickle barrel. What happened in between—a cautionary tale of greed, incompetence, and hubris—lies at the center of this fascinating account by Harvard historian Samuel A. Forman. Endorsed by New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick, it is a startling and frank portrait of a young America that examines the dream of an inclusive American experience and its reality—a debate that continues today. Imperious General David Forman, a terror to his Monmouth County, New Jersey, Loyalist neighbors, during the Revolutionary War obtained a large land grant in Natchez, then part of Spanish West Florida. His charge was to establish a plantation that would lure settlers and establish a new American presence. Staying behind in New Jersey David Forman appointed his rotund and gouty older brother Ezekiel as leader of the expedition, his young cousin Samuel S. Forman as its business manager, and a former military aide as overseer of the enslaved African Americans who accompanied them. It did not go well. When the expedition finally reached the new territory it found waiting Spanish colonials who felt the land was theirs and Native Americans who still maintained their sovereignty over the contested lands. When Ezekiel Forman died unexpectedly, David Forman stormed from New Jersey into Natchez to take control of the unraveling situation. He would find on his arrival that those awaiting him had other ideas about who the land actually belonged to. He would return to New Jersey quite dead and pickled in a barrel of rum. Lively, impeccably researched, and rich in details that have escaped the usual tales of American growth and enterprise, Ill-Fated Frontier shines new and entertaining light on what it means to be an American.

Siberia Bound

Siberia Bound PDF Author: Alexander Blakely
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Recounts the adventures of an American entrepreneur in Siberia, where he and Russian partner built a multi-million dollar company, and offers insightsnto the life in Novosibirsk.

The New Country

The New Country PDF Author: Richard A. Bartlett
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0195020219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From borax mule trains to the canoe stop that was Chicago in the 1830s, this book vividly recreated the tale of the westward movement of pioneers into the heartland of North America. With nearly a century separating historian Richard Bartlett from the end of the movement, Bartlett's broad perspective stresses the continuity and inevitability of this greatest element of America's Golden Age. The book focuses on the settlement of the country, the racial and ethnic composition of the people, agriculture, transportation, developments of the land, the growth of towns and cities, and the nature of frontier society as it brilliantly brings to life the frontier experience as lived by millions of Americans. Bartlett concludes that the pioneer's freedom from restrictions in a new country resulted in the unprecedented burst of energy that settled America in some 114 years.

The End of the Myth

The End of the Myth PDF Author: Greg Grandin
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1250179815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE A new and eye-opening interpretation of the meaning of the frontier, from early westward expansion to Trump’s border wall. Ever since this nation’s inception, the idea of an open and ever-expanding frontier has been central to American identity. Symbolizing a future of endless promise, it was the foundation of the United States’ belief in itself as an exceptional nation – democratic, individualistic, forward-looking. Today, though, America hasa new symbol: the border wall. In The End of the Myth, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin explores the meaning of the frontier throughout the full sweep of U.S. history – from the American Revolution to the War of 1898, the New Deal to the election of 2016. For centuries, he shows, America’s constant expansion – fighting wars and opening markets – served as a “gate of escape,” helping to deflect domestic political and economic conflicts outward. But this deflection meant that the country’s problems, from racism to inequality, were never confronted directly. And now, the combined catastrophe of the 2008 financial meltdown and our unwinnable wars in the Middle East have slammed this gate shut, bringing political passions that had long been directed elsewhere back home. It is this new reality, Grandin says, that explains the rise of reactionary populism and racist nationalism, the extreme anger and polarization that catapulted Trump to the presidency. The border wall may or may not be built, but it will survive as a rallying point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism.