America's Frontier Heritage

Download or read book America's Frontier Heritage written by Ray Allen Billington and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hypothesis advanced in Frederick Jackson Turners' famous 1893 essay, "The significance of the Frontier in American History," has been debated by three generations of scholars. The pioneering characteristics of the American people; during three centuries of expansion their attitudes toward democracy, nationalism, and individualism were altered, and they developed distinctively American traits, such as wastefulness, inventiveness, mobility, and a dozen more. This thought-provoking book by the leading authority on Turner presents the results of modern research in history and the behavioral sciences, concluding that in may ways the Turner hypothesis is a valid one. After opening with a summary of the appearance, acceptance, and subsequent dismissal of the theory, the author carefully defines the "frontier" and reviews recent evidence on its political, social, and economic characteristics. He discusses the compulsion to migrate and examines other behavioral patterns and traits in his explanation of how and why pioneers moved west. His extensive bibliographic notes constitute a remarkable guide to the literature of many discipline dealing with the frontier concept -- Back cover.