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Turner's Frontier Thesis Summary

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Turner's Frontier Thesis Summary
Well According to Turner, the westward movement Americanized the pioneer, shaped American institutions, and promoted democracy. However, it was a long time before historians started questioning Turner’s frontier thesis, so strong was the appeal to Americans’ imagination generated by this justification of American exceptionalism. The New western history in the late 1980’s rejected the nation of the frontier all together.New Historians suggested a rewriting of the Western past that focused on the West as a region, with geographical limits and specific characteristics distinguishing it from the other American regions. While Turner’s thesis was national in scope and glorified an American identity, the New Historians’ regionalism, stressing the uniqueness of the West, promoted a Western …show more content…
Turner’s thesis has had such a long impact that it is considered one of the main documents of American histography. According to Turner, it was the frontier that shaped American institutions,
Romel Santiago

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Romel Santiago

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society, and culture. Turner famously asserted: "The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development" (OE.org). The originality of the nation’s institutions, according to Turner, lay in their adaptation to the new environment encountered by the pioneers. Society is
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