The expansion of the American frontier played a large part in the history and making of the United States, but how big was that role? I guess what Fredrick Jackson Turner wants to point out here is that the American West is the most important feature of American history, and of the development of its society. In the second paragraph of chapter one he says, “ The true point of view in the history of this nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West”.
A definition he gives of the frontier is, “it lies at the hither edge of free land”, meaning that he considers the Indian territory to be free land. According to him the frontier is the “meeting point between savagery and civilization”, “the most rapid and effective Americanization”.
A definition he gives of the frontier is, “it lies at the hither edge of free land”, meaning that he considers the Indian territory to be free land. According to him the frontier is the “meeting point between savagery and civilization”, “the most rapid and effective Americanization”.
For the most part I do agree that the frontier expansion of America was the leading cause of what shaped the “American way”, but maybe he could have included more about things such as the influence the Native Americans had on our thinking, and way of life. In many of the stories in history we hear about the conflict between us and the Indians. Even in frontierland, the place in Disney Land that Limerick writes about, it seems that it only portrays the violent aspect. Even the tourists can play “cowboys and Indians” pretending to shoot at each other. But actually we learned a lot from the Nat
ive Americans, they were there before us and I believe also played a large role Americanization.
In the piece by Patricia Nelson Limerick she talks about the comparison of the frontier to Velcro. She says, “No normal reader if one defines a “normal reader” as a person who is not a Western American historian, would even notice the peculiar implication of the analogy.” Well I guess that makes me extremely normal, because I didn’t even fully understand it. So I guess one of the questions I have would be what that’s all about.
Before now when I pictured a frontier I always just thought of a big piece territory and lots of cowboys and Indians running around. Ok, so obviously I’m not much of a historian at all, and both the Turner and Limerick papers were pretty hard to follow and make complete sense of. I often found myself after a few minutes drifting away in thought. I started to wonder what else a frontier could be compared to, an ocean…a jungle… places of exploration. I couldn’t think of anything like Velcro, but reading these two pieces definetly got me thinking about the different meanings of the word frontier.
In the piece by Patricia Nelson Limerick she talks about the comparison of the frontier to Velcro. She says, “No normal reader if one defines a “normal reader” as a person who is not a Western American historian, would even notice the peculiar implication of the analogy.” Well I guess that makes me extremely normal, because I didn’t even fully understand it. So I guess one of the questions I have would be what that’s all about.
Before now when I pictured a frontier I always just thought of a big piece territory and lots of cowboys and Indians running around. Ok, so obviously I’m not much of a historian at all, and both the Turner and Limerick papers were pretty hard to follow and make complete sense of. I often found myself after a few minutes drifting away in thought. I started to wonder what else a frontier could be compared to, an ocean…a jungle… places of exploration. I couldn’t think of anything like Velcro, but reading these two pieces definetly got me thinking about the different meanings of the word frontier.
