Frederick Jackson Turner Quotes
The West, at bottom, is a form of society rather than an area. It is the term applied to the region whose social conditions result from the application of older institutions and ideas to the transforming influences of free land. By this application, a new environment is suddenly entered, freedom of opportunity is opened, the cake of custom is broken, and new activities, new lines of growth, new institutions and new ideals, are brought into existence.
Frederick Jackson Turner, 1861–1932, Historian, “The Problem Of The West”, The Atlantic Monthly, September 1896
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Frederick Jackson Turner was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the University of Wisconsin until 1910, and then Harvard University. He was known primarily for his anti-Indigenous "Frontier Thesis". He trained many PhDs who became well-known historians. He promoted interdisciplinary and quantitative methods, often with an emphasis on the Midwest. His best known publication is his essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", the ideas of which formed the Frontier Thesis. He argued that the moving western frontier exerted a strong influence on American democracy and the American character from the colonial era until 1890. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism. During recent years historians and academics have argued frequently over Turner's work; all agree that the Frontier Thesis has had an enormous effect on historical scholarship.
