American frontier
The era of westward expansion that shaped American identity.
The frontier myth has embedded itself into U.S. culture so that the Old West and the Western genre have become defining features of American national identity.[1] The geography, history, folklore, and culture tied to American expansion across mainland North America, beginning with early 17th-century European colonial settlements and concluding when the final contiguous western territories achieved statehood in 1912, constitute what is known as the American frontier.[1] President Thomas Jefferson's encouragement of migration and settlement after the Louisiana Purchase helped foster the expansionist ideology called "manifest destiny" and the scholarly "Frontier Thesis."[1]
Quick Facts
- Start of frontier era
- early 17th century
- End of frontier era
- 1912
- Key legislation
- Louisiana Purchase
- President associated
- Thomas Jefferson
- Expansionist attitude
- manifest destiny
- Historians' concept
- Frontier Thesis
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Turner asserted that the frontier promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people.[2] He theorized that the frontier was a process of development: "This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward...furnish the forces dominating American character".[3][4] Turner's ideas since 1893 have inspired generations of historians to explore multiple individual American frontiers.[3] The popular folk frontier concentrates on settlement west of the Mississippi River, in what is now the Midwest, Texas, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and the West Coast.[3]
Historians have debated when the frontier era began and ended, with the Old West subperiod sometimes defined from 1865 to the 1890 U.S. census.[5] Territory designated as frontier by the U.S. Census Bureau was generally unoccupied land where the population density was less than 2 individuals per square mile.[6] Settlements sometimes emerged far beyond the established frontier line, notably on the West Coast and in the deep interior.[7]
What the cited sources add
Turner told the audience that "in the crucible of the frontier, the immigrants were Americanized, liberated and fused into a mixed race".[2] The magazine reports that Turner's thesis was swiftly embraced by academic and political institutions, perfectly timed for a country experiencing dramatic change.[2] Turner's 1896 Atlantic Monthly essay tied populists' agitation to social pressures from the closing of the frontier and was picked up by newspapers across the country.[2] Billington concludes that Turner's conclusions have been questioned and modified but not seriously altered.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "American frontier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Magazine, "How the Myth of the American Frontier Got Its Start", Smithsonian Magazine (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Magazine, "How the Myth of the American Frontier Got Its Start", Smithsonian Magazine. facts only, no text reused. smithsonianmag.com
- Wikipedia, "American frontier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Turner, Frederick Jackson, "The Frontier in American History", 1920, p. 1–38; "How the Frontier Shaped the American Character", spot.colorado.edu (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Turner, Frederick Jackson, "The Frontier in American History", 1920, p. 1–38. facts only, no text reused. gutenberg.org
- Wikipedia, "American frontier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brian W. Dippie, "American Wests: historiographical perspectives." American Studies International 27.2 (1989): 3–25.; Porter, ""Progress of the Nation", in "Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890, Part 1"", Bureau of the Census, 1895, p. xviii–xxxiv; Turner, Frederick Jackson, "The Frontier in American History", 1920, p. 293; Nash, "The Census of 1890 and the Closing of the Frontier", The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 1980, p. 98–100; Lang, "'Progress of the Nation': The Settlement History of the Endurin en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "American frontier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Definition of FRONTIER", www.merriam-webster.com; "Definition of MARGIN", www.merriam-webster.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "American frontier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "A Companion to the American West", Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p. 5–24; Lamar, "The Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West", Crowell, 1977; Klein, "Reclaiming the "F" Word, or Being and Becoming Postwestern", Pacific Historical Review, 1996, p. 179–215; "Western frontier life in America", Slatta, Richard W., January 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "How the Frontier Shaped the American Character", spot.colorado.edu. facts only, no text reused. spot.colorado.edu
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article American frontier (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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