Turner vs New West Historians
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Feb 20, 2024
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Turner & New Western Historians
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Turner & New Western Historians
Sergio M. Davila
HIS 555
Studies in the American West
Grand Canyon University Professor Adrien Ivan
1/17/2024
Turner & New Western Historians
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The Western Frontier has been a topic of academic discussion for as long as I remember, perhaps since the old Manifest Destiny days. The West has been seen as a part of the United States that seems untamed and footloose and fancy-free when it comes to the law. Of course, there is the harsh environment of the Mojave, Sonoran, Great Basin, Salt Lake, and Chihuahua deserts that have shown the West to be a harsh wilderness for some folks headed out that direction. That being said, the perception of the West has morphed over time. Either way, the division of the West from the Eastern United States tends to paint the Wild West as a savage land
versus the proper civilization in the East.
1 It is also a chance for two cultures to mix and respect one another for what they are.
2 Many a scholar has been spellbound by the West. Fredrick Jackson Turner developed a lecture called “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” This essay was addressed to many of his peers on July 12, 1893. The essay became popular among scholars of the West.
3 Turner’s thesis stated “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development”
4 While Turner is known as the patron saint of Western History, many have actually challenged his view on the concept of the frontier. One of the misgivings folks have is in his studies, he rarely gave credit to the diversity of the people of the West. [1] Andrei Gandila, Cultural Encounters of Byzantium’s Northern Frontier, c. AD 500-700: Coins and History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 11.
[2] Gandila, Cultural Encounters of Byzantium’s, 1.
[3] Sarah J. Moore, Empire on Display: San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013), 1889.
[4] Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1894),” The University of Warwick, accessed January 17, 2024, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/en3
04/syllabus2017-18/the_significance_of_the_frontier_in_american_history.pdf
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While there were some misgivings on Turner’s thesis, it was lauded by many. His historiographic documents became the premier study among scholars of the West. This essay of Turner’s has had so much respect, it became understood that it explains America’s past and identity. Turner was great in expressing his belief in American exceptionalism and his passion for the West garnered him a huge following. His peers have interpreted Wild West History the way he saw fit and for many it is known as gospel. With his thesis, he has described the opening of the West as the true birth of the United States. After all, the West has displayed a quaintness that has not been prevalent in the original 13 Colonies. Mr. Turner has even declared “And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”
5 The American West, as Turner saw it, unleashed many an American’s imagination, as many stories and movies have been cooked up just by looking out at the deserts and watering holes and cooking up stories that will bring much fanfare. Immigrant culture had completely changed with the arrival of the Anglo Christians from the United Kingdom. Like it was said before, many scholars considered the move out West, Manifest Destiny, as a meeting between an advanced culture and a primitive culture.
6 When Turner mentions the Frontier, he is speaking of the West, and vice versa. The Frontier was erased
with Manifest Destiny, as technology and the Industrial Revolution brought a new civilization.
7 [5] Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier.”
[6] Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of American West. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1988
[7] Harold P. Simonson, Beyond the Frontier: Writers, Western Regionalism, and a Sense of Place (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1989), 45
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Mr. Turner has laid out a study that has shown the West as an integral part of American heritage and should be presented as such. With all the accolades and respect, there were some issues with other scholars in the 2oth Century that did their best to try and contradict Turner’s scholarly work. One issue is trying to discredit Turner’s thesis. It is in the 1980s when New Western Historians started to rise up and put their spin on established history. In other words, revisionist history started to rear its ugly head. One issue is the term “frontier”, New Western Historians, for one reason or the other, felt this tern was racist and jingoistic. As what was said before, New Western Historians felt as if “Old West Historians” weren’t doing their best to include other populations in their accolades for
the “Wild West”.
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Another difference that was prevalent between the Turner and the New West Historians was that Turner was of the belief that the frontier was a process than an actual territory. Europeans actually tried to buy whatever land they could to improve their socioeconomic status, even if it meant that they needed to uproot many Native Americans. That being said, when the United States swept into the West, they ended up making the Mexican population new Americans. Most of the native Mexicans stayed and became naturalized American citizens. Basically, these new Americans were introduced to things they weren’t getting in Mexico, especially when Mexico ran the West. Things such as democracy, private property, and self-
governance were unheard of in Santa Anna’s Mexico.
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These new Mexican Americans shaped [8] Nathalie Massip, “The Role of the West in the Construction of American Identity: From Frontier to Crossroads,” Caliban: French Journals of English Studies 31, (2012), accessed January
18, 2024, https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/
[9] Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier.”
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the United States into a flavorful melting pot with their culture, food, and all-around vivaciousness. Turner felt that real American values depended on how we incorporated Mexican Americans into the American system with fidelity as well as American grit allowing us to adapt to the harsh environment of the West. In other words, “if they can handle it, we can!” Also, these
harsh conditions helped evolve the USA as a grittier nation, leaving our blue-blooded traditions we adopted from our English colonizers firmly in the past. Another change that occurred was the
creation of people of mixed races. This was considered very taboo. But, as we went West, many freedoms were born out of our need to go there, which lent to many Latino and Anglo-American marriages and even African Americans marrying into Anglo or Latino families. It was obvious that there were less prying, racist eyes in the West, so people could finally love who they want to
love without persecution and dirty looks.
10 One thing the new American pioneers also had to let happen to them in their trek our West was by going primitive. There were no telegraphs at first in
areas of California, the New Mexico Territory, or even the Utah territory. This made it clear that only the grittiest of humans should leave the comfort of the East, with all their toiletries, baths, refrigerators, and maid service, for the do-it-yourself aesthetic of living in the West.
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Professor Turner saw that the pioneer transformed in their quest to go West. The Mountainous and Desert terrain brought out the roughneck in many of the families going that way. In other words, the tenderfoot gradually left the building when they left the influence of the East and became firmly ensconced in dry terrain of the West. 10 Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier.”
11 Massip, “The Role of the West in the Construction of American Identity: From Frontier to Crossroads,”
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Folks that repudiate Turner’s studies tend to reject the defining characteristics of his thesis of the West. New West Scholars rebuff the concept that the West is a product of Manifest Destiny. Another problem is that while they agree on the West being a region, that can’t seem to get it straight when it comes to the borders of West. They go as far as including Alaska and Hawaii as a legit part of the West.
12 With that being said, New Western Scholars tend to think that Professor Turner didn’t give too many props to the Native American, Chinese, Mexican, or African Americans that were as influential in developing the West as their Anglo-American counterparts. While these groups were pretty antagonistic with each other, as well as the white population, they did wonders for making the West what it is. For example, Chinese immigrants hard work resulted in the transcontinental railroad. These New Western Historians tend to think that Turner didn’t really comprehend, nor respect the work these minority populations put in to make the West so prominent in history.
To conclude, Turner’s thesis is a prominent study of the history of the West. While there are some deficiencies in some his thought processes when it comes to his lack of inclusion within
the Native American, Mexican, Chinese, Women, and African American populations, he is widely respected within the academic community. It is healthy to have debate among other scholars, otherwise, we wouldn’t be Americans if we didn’t question things we didn’t agree with.
That being said, there is respect even with his opponents of his theories. One thing most can agree with is that when the Anglo-Americans went west, they shed all the niceties that came with
being from the eastern United States. This mindset that men of the United States made the trip out West to prove their manhood and make for a grittier American was started with Professor Turner. The harshness of the West molded men into a breed of man that was grittier than most.
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12 Massip, “The Role of the West.”
In other words, the West was considered a crucible that molded men into a stronger, more capable human being. This leads to the same argument that New Western Scholars are of the belief that the West is a Geographical region and not a process. While there will always be opposition to Turner’s thesis, it is imperative to understand that his study gives one of the most
grand explanations that involves the making of the American West.
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REFERENCES
Gandila, Andrei. Cultural Encounters of Byzantium’s Northern Frontier, c. AD 500-700: Coins and History.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of American West
. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1988
Massip, Nathalie. “The Role of the West in the Construction of American Identity: From Frontier
to Crossroads.” Caliban: French Journals of English Studies
31, (2012): 239-248. Accessed January 18, 2024. https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/486.
Moore, Sarah J. Empire on Display: San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915
. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
Simonson, Harold P. Beyond the Frontier: Writers, Western Regionalism, and a Sense of Place. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1989.
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REFERENCES
Turner, Frederick Jackson. “The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1894
).” The University of Warwick.
Accessed January 18, 2024. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/spec
ial/en304/syllabus2017-18/the_significance_of_the_frontier_in_american_history.pdf.
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