Frontier Thesis

The contextualisation for the expansion of America was the main reason Frederick Jackson Turner undertook his hugely influential text ‘The Significance of the Frontier in American History’. It described it as a monumental event in American history as America sought to find and establish its exact culture in the modern world. They were distinctly different from their colonial past but where exactly along the way did they morph into their present day state. Turner stated that it was the press…

1. The Battle of Wounded Knee resulted from the conflict over Native American assimilation. Conflict between the white views of Native American integration was evident as the rift between Christian reformers and humanitarians grew. Many Christian reformers were adamant in forceful Indian assimilation into white culture and society, whereas humanitarians wanted to take a softer approach—treating the Indians nicely and persuading them to join the white ways. The forceful group overpowered the kind…

Instead, the myths idealized life on the frontier. Many authors used descriptive details in their stories to make the west seem appealing to the American people in pursuit of the American Dream. The myths of the frontier made the Great Plains look like a land that was full of opportunity. An illustration of this idea is the dime novel, Young Wild West written by An Old Scout. This novel was about an eighteen-year-old boy who traveled all over the western frontier looking for adventures. Young…

order to be successful. Frederick Jackson Turner expresses that theme in context of America advancing as a country in his excerpts from the “Turner Thesis (1893).” He symbolizes the Western Frontier as a basis in which the American people started to evolve. Yet he then continues on to say that the frontier is “closed”, Turner means that the frontier has since adapted and the American people have new standards to meet and something new to conquer. In order for the country to continue to thrive it…

Turner’s obsession with the frontier mentality that in his opinion defined the American character, “that coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and acquisitiveness; that practical inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things... that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism" is a direct result of the frontier. However, as previously illustrated there are clearly other factors besides the frontier have helped to define America.…

Savanna Walker, Assignment 8, July 11,2017  "Eisenhower Diplomacy: Guns, Butter, Nukes, and Space" In the Introduction lesson, the thesis seems to be that Eisenhower was so effective in the use of his power and influence that he managed things such as: a balanced budget, keeping the economy stable, the containment of communism, and ending the war in Korea. In 1952, Eisenhower only spent about 1/10 of our annual budget and the Soviets had spent so much money they had to choose between guns or…

“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” contains many of the ideas that we have discussed about the American Frontier and the role it has played in shaping America. The movie illustrates the idea from Turner’s Frontier Thesis that as Americans settled past the frontier and into the “savage” west, society had to start over and go through the process of rebuilding itself. The movie’s plot depicts the death of the “Wild West” caused by Rance’s influence in the town. At the start of the movie, Ranse…

Thesis: “We mistake ourselves when we suppose that wilderness can be the solution to our culture’s problematic relationships with the nonhuman world, for wilderness is itself no small part of the problem” (1). I. “You were in the presence of something irreducibly nonhuman, something profoundly Other than yourself. Wilderness is made of that too.” (1) o Cronon begins his essay by defining wilderness as he sees it. While a great deal of his arguments are based off the idea that the wild is…

Cohen is trying to understand specific cultures through the monsters, or fragments of history, they create. In the next part of this essay Cohen offers seven theses towards understanding cultures through the monsters that they create. In the first thesis, Cohen declares that, “The monsters body is a cultural body”. Monsters are created at a metaphoric crossroads, and embody a certain cultural moment in time. This cultural moment could be a time, feeling, or a place (Cohen 4).“The monster…

The novel The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and the Plains was written by Glenda Riley. Riley was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1938 and gained her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1968. After she received her Ph.D. she went on to acquire he first teaching position at Northern Iowa University, where she held this position for 21 years. She also founded the University of Northern Iowa’s Women’s Studies Program. This wide range of knowledge on this particular subject,…