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{{Short description|American historian (1861–1932)}}
{{Short description|American historian (1861–1932)}}
{{for|other people of the same name|Frederick Jackson (disambiguation){{!}}Frederick Jackson|Frederick Turner (disambiguation){{!}}Frederick Turner}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox academic
{{Infobox academic
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| discipline = [[History]]
| discipline = [[History]]
| workplaces = {{ubl|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]]|[[Harvard University]]|[[Huntington Library]]}}
| workplaces = {{ubl|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]]|[[Harvard University]]|[[Huntington Library]]}}
| doctoral_advisor = [[Herbert Baxter Adams]]
| known_for = [[Frontier thesis]]
| notable_students = {{ubl|[[Thomas Perkins Abernethy]]|[[Merle Curti]]}}
| known_for = [[Frontier thesis]], Sectional hypothesis
| thesis_title = The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year = 1891
| awards =
| awards =
| education = {{ubl|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|AB]])|[[Johns Hopkins University]] ([[PhD]])}}
| education = {{ubl|[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|AB]])|[[Johns Hopkins University]] ([[PhD]])}}
}}
}}


'''Frederick Jackson Turner''' (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American historian during the early 20th century, based at the [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]] until 1910, and then [[Harvard University]]. He was known primarily for his [[frontier thesis]]. He trained many [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhDs]] who went on to become well-known historians. He promoted interdisciplinary and quantitative methods, often with an emphasis on the [[Midwestern United States]].
'''Frederick Jackson Turner''' (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American [[historian]]. He worked at the [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]] until 1910. Then he worked at [[Harvard University]]. People know him because of an idea he had which is called the [[frontier thesis]]. Also, he trained many other famous historians. He changed how people study history. His focus was the [[Midwestern United States]].


Turner's essay "[[The Significance of the Frontier in American History]]" included ideas that formed the [[frontier thesis]]. In it, Turner 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; however, all agree that the frontier thesis has had an enormous effect on historical scholarship.
Turner's most famous essay "[[The Significance of the Frontier in American History]]" shared his idea of [[frontier thesis]]. A [[frontier]] is an area near a country's borders. Turner argued that the United States' frontier had a big impact on the United States' [[government]]<nowiki/>and people.

Many historians argue about if Turner's idea was right. However, they agree that it was important to future writing about history.


==Early life and education==
==Early life and education==
Turner was born in [[Portage, Wisconsin]]. His parents were [[Andrew Jackson Turner]] and Mary Olivia Hanford Turner. Turner read and learned from [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Charles Darwin]], [[Herbert Spencer]], and [[Julian Huxley]]. He was also interested in [[Cartography|maps]]. He graduated in 1884 from the University of Wisconsin.
Born in [[Portage, Wisconsin]], the son of [[Andrew Jackson Turner]] and Mary Olivia Hanford Turner, Turner grew up in a middle-class family. His father was active in Republican politics, an investor in a railroad, and was a newspaper editor and publisher.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|title=Was Famed as Educator and as Historian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85940077/frederick-jackson-turner-1861-1932/ |newspaper=Portage Daily Register |date=March 16, 1932 |location=Portage, WI |page=1 |via = [[Newspapers.com]] |accessdate = September 25, 2021}} {{Open access}}</ref> His mother taught school.<ref>Martin Ridge. ''The Life of an Idea:The Significance of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis''. Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Winter, 1991), p. 4. Published by: Montana Historical Society. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4519357.</ref> Turner was very much influenced by the writing of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], a poet known for his emphasis on nature; so too was Turner influenced by scientists such as [[Charles Darwin]], [[Herbert Spencer]], and [[Julian Huxley]], and the development of [[cartography]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Robert H. Block|title=Frederick Jackson Turner and American Geography|journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers|volume= 70| issue = 1|year=1980|pages= 31–42|jstor=2562823|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1980.tb01295.x}}</ref> In 1884, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin, which was later renamed the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].<ref name="Obit"/> While there, Turner was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity]].


Turner was very much influenced by the writing of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], a poet known for his emphasis on nature; so too was Turner influenced by scientists such as [[Charles Darwin]], [[Herbert Spencer]], and [[Julian Huxley]], and the development of [[cartography]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Robert H. Block|title=Frederick Jackson Turner and American Geography|journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers|volume= 70| issue = 1|year=1980|pages= 31–42|jstor=2562823|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1980.tb01295.x}}</ref> In 1884, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. That school is now named the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|date=March 16, 1932|title=Was Famed as Educator and as Historian|page=1|newspaper=Portage Daily Register|location=Portage, WI|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/85940077/frederick-jackson-turner-1861-1932/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|accessdate=September 25, 2021}} {{Open access}}</ref> While there, Turner was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity]].
He earned his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in history from [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore]] in 1890 with a thesis on the fur trade in [[Wisconsin]], titled ''The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=The character and influence of the Indian trade in Wisconsin : a study of the trading post as an institution |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.characterinfluen02turn/?st=gallery |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> under the academic supervision of [[Herbert Baxter Adams]].

He earned his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in history from [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore]] in 1890 by writing about the fur trade in [[Wisconsin]]. His teacher there was [[Herbert Baxter Adams]].


==Career==
==Career==
Turner did not publish extensively; his influence came from tersely expressed interpretive theories in his articles, which influenced his hundreds of disciples. Two theories, in particular, were influential, the "Frontier Thesis" and the "Sectional Hypothesis".
Turner did not share much writing. However, his ideas changed how many people thought. His most important ideas are named the Frontier Thesis and the Sectional Hypothesis.

Although he published little, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of American history, earning a reputation by 1910 as one of the two or three most influential historians in the country. He proved adept at promoting his ideas and his students, for whom he obtained jobs in major universities, including [[Merle Curti]] and [[Marcus Lee Hansen]]. He circulated copies of his essays and lectures to important scholars and literary people, published extensively in magazines, recycled favorite material, attaining the largest possible audience for major concepts,<ref name="SM 2023-01/02">{{Cite magazine |last=Woodard |first=Colin |date=January–February 2023 |title=How the Myth of the American Frontier Got Its Start |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-myth-american-frontier-got-start-180981310/ |access-date=2023-01-06 |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> and wielded considerable influence within the [[American Historical Association]] as an officer and advisor for ''[[The American Historical Review]]''. His emphasis on the importance of the frontier in shaping American character influenced the interpretation found in thousands of scholarly histories. By the time Turner died in 1932, 60% of the major history departments in the U.S. were teaching courses in frontier history compatible with Turner's theories.<ref>Allan G. Bogue, "Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered," ''The History Teacher,'' (1994), p. 195. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/494720 in JSTOR].</ref>

Annoyed by the university regents who demanded less research and more teaching and state service, Turner sought an environment that would permit him to do more research.<ref>Allan G. Bogue, [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_autumn02_bogue.pdf "'Not by Bread Alone': The Emergence of the Wisconsin Idea and the Departure of Frederick Jackson Turner."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816233415/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_autumn02_bogue.pdf |date=2017-08-16 }} ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' 2002 86(1): 10–23.</ref> Declining offers from the [[University of California]], he accepted an offer from [[Harvard University]] in 1910 and remained a professor there until 1922,<ref name="Obit"/> being succeeded in 1924 by [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.]] In 1907 Turner was elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]],<ref>[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistt American Antiquarian Society Members Directory].</ref> and in 1911 he was elected a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter T|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterT.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=13 April 2011}}</ref> Turner was never comfortable at Harvard; when he retired in 1922 he became a visiting scholar at [[the Huntington Library]] in Los Angeles, where his note cards and files continued to accumulate, although few monographs got published. His ''The Frontier in American History'' (1920) was a collection of older essays.

As a professor of history at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]] from 1890 to 1910 and Harvard from 1910 to 1922, Turner trained scores of disciples who, in turn, dominated American history programs throughout the country. His model of sectionalism as a composite of social forces, such as ethnicity and land ownership, encouraged historians to use social history to analyze social, economic and political developments of American history. At the [[American Historical Association]], he collaborated with [[J. Franklin Jameson]] on numerous major projects.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Alfred F. Young and Gregory H. Nobles |title=Whose American Revolution Was It?: Historians Interpret the Founding|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDTC9EX7oIgC&pg=PA22|year= 2011|publisher=NYU Press|page=25|isbn=978-0-8147-9710-5}}</ref>

⚫
Turner's theories became unfashionable during the 1960s, as critics complained that he neglected regionalism. They complained that he claimed too much egalitarianism and democracy for a frontier that was restrictive for women and minorities. After Turner's death his former colleague Isaiah Bowman had this to say of his work: "Turner's ideas were curiously wanting in evidence from field studies...He represents a type of historian who rests his case on documents and general impression rather than a scientist who goes out for to see."<ref>Robert H. Block. "Frederick Jackson Turner And American Geography." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 70, No.1 (Mar., 1980), p. 40. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2562823.</ref> His ideas were never forgotten; indeed they influenced the new field of [[environmental history]].<ref>Hutton (2002).</ref> Turner gave a strong impetus to quantitative methods, and scholars using new statistical techniques and data sets have, for example, confirmed many of Turner's suggestions about population movements.<ref>Hall and Ruggles, 2004.</ref> Turner believed that because of his own biases and the amount of conflicting historical evidence that any one method of historical interpretation would be insufficient, that an interdisciplinary method was the most accurate way to analyze history.<ref>Wilbur R. Jacobs. "Wider Frontiers: Questions of War and Conflict in American History: The Strange Solution by Frederick Jackson Turner". ''California Historical Society Quarterly'', vol. 47, no. 3 (Sep. 1968), p. 230. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154299.</ref>


Also, he knew much information about United States history. HIs students like Merle Curti and Marcus Lee Hansen learned from him. He also helped them get jobs.
==Works==
⚫
===Frontier thesis===
{{main|The Significance of the Frontier in American History|Frontier thesis}}
Turner's [[frontier thesis]] was developed in a scholarly paper of 1893, "[[The Significance of the Frontier in American History]]", read before the [[American Historical Association]] in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition ([[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World's Fair]]). He believed the spirit and success of the United States was associated directly with the country's westward expansion. Turner expounded an evolutionary model; he had been influenced by work with geologists at Wisconsin. The West, not the East, was where distinctively American characteristics emerged. The creation of the unique American identity occurred at the juncture between the "civilization" of settlement and the "savagery" of wilderness. This produced a new type of citizen – one with the power to "tame the wild" and one upon whom the wild had conferred strength and individuality.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/63196/the-old-frontiers |title=The Old Frontiers |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |date=May 7, 2008 |access-date=December 30, 2016 |author=Alan Taylor|author-link=Alan Taylor (historian)}}</ref> As each generation of pioneers relocated 50 to 100 miles west, they abandoned useless European practices, institutions and ideas, and instead found new solutions to new problems created by their new environment. Over multiple generations, the frontier produced characteristics of informality, violence, crudeness, democracy and initiative that the world recognized as "American".


Turner started to teach at Harvard in 1910 because he wanted to do more studying and less teaching.<ref>Allan G. Bogue, [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_autumn02_bogue.pdf "'Not by Bread Alone': The Emergence of the Wisconsin Idea and the Departure of Frederick Jackson Turner."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816233415/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_autumn02_bogue.pdf|date=2017-08-16}} ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' 2002 86(1): 10–23.</ref> He stopped working in 1922. Then, he started studying at [[the Huntington Library]] in Los Angeles.
Turner ignored gender, and he did not emphasize class. Historians of the 1960s and later stressed that race, class and gender were major influencers of history. The new generation stresses gender, ethnicity, professional categorization, and the contrasting victor and victim legacies of manifest destiny and colonial expansion. Most{{citation needed|reason=Informal straw poll?|date=January 2022}} professional historians operating within the ''au courant'' postmodern paradigm now criticize Turner's frontier thesis and the theme of [[American exceptionalism]]. The disunity of the concept of the West and the similarity of American expansion to European colonialism and imperialism during the 19th century, and the lack of complete egalitarianism even on the frontier revealed the limits{{clarify|reason=I doubt the thesis was completist to begin with, and I have no reason to suspect that Turner regarded the limitations of his proposal as being in any way difficult to uncover (all models are wrong, but some models are useful); does 'limit' in this context mean anything other than not being founded or fixated upon class and gender constructions? If that's the actual problem, this language is euphemistic.|date=January 2022}} of Turnerian and exceptionalist paradigms.<ref>Scharff et al, 2000.</ref>


⚫
==Frontier thesis idea==
===Sectionalism===
Turner's [[sectionalism]] essays are collected in ''The Significance of Sections in American History'', which won the [[Pulitzer Prize in History]] in 1933. Turner's sectionalism thesis had almost as much influence among historians as his frontier thesis, but never became widely known to the general public as did the frontier thesis. He argued that different ethnocultural groups had distinct settlement patterns, and this revealed itself in politics, economics and society.{{r|SM 2023-01/02}}
Turner first wrote about his [[frontier thesis]] idea in 1893. He read a piece called "[[The Significance of the Frontier in American History]]" to the [[American Historical Association]] in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition ([[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World's Fair]]). His idea was that the United States was successful because it had taken land in the West from [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. He argued that taking land changed the people of the United States because they needed to work in a new environment.


==Influence and legacy==
==Influence and legacy==
At first, many people liked Turner's ideas. When he died, 3 out of every 5 colleges in the United States had classes that taught frontier history like he did.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bogue|first=Allan G.|date=1994|title=Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/494720|journal=The History Teacher|volume=27|issue=2|pages=195–221|doi=10.2307/494720|issn=0018-2745}}</ref> His ideas also affected [[popular culture]] ideas about the [[Western United States]].<ref>Richard W. Slatta, "Taking Our Myths Seriously." ''[[Journal of the West]]'' (2001) 40#3 pp. 3–5.</ref>
Turner's ideas influenced many types of [[historiography]]. Concerning the history of religion, for example, Boles (1993) notes that William Warren Sweet at the [[University of Chicago Divinity School]] argued that churches adapted to the characteristics of the frontier, creating new denominations such as the [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|LDS Church]], the [[Churches of Christ|Church of Christ]], the [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)|Disciples of Christ]], and the [[Cumberland Presbyterians]]. The frontier, they argued, created uniquely American institutions such as revivals, camp meetings, and itinerant preaching. This opinion dominated religious historiography for decades.<ref>John B. Boles, "Turner, The Frontier, and the Study of Religion in America," ''Journal of the Early Republic'' (1993) 13#2 pp. 205–16. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3124087 in JSTOR].</ref> Moos (2002) says that the 1910s to 1940s black filmmaker and novelist [[Oscar Micheaux]] incorporated Turner's frontier thesis into his work. Micheaux promoted the West as a place where blacks could transcend race and earn economic success through diligent work and perseverance.<ref>Dan Moos, "Reclaiming the Frontier: Oscar Micheaux as Black Turnerian," ''[[African American Review]]'' (2002) 36#3 pp. 357–81 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1512202 in JSTOR].</ref>


In the 1960s, historians started to disagree with Turner more. They said he needed to think about women and people of color in the frontier. The frontier was not always a place for freedom. However, the way he studied history was still copied.<ref name=":0">Hutton (2002).</ref>
Citing Turner's "frontier thesis," [[Friedrich Ratzel]] believed that the German campaign to colonize [[German South West Africa]] could serve to "harden (the German) character."<ref>Weizman, Eyal (25 April 2024) "Diary." ''London Review of Books.'' Page 43-45.</ref>


⚫
Turner's theories became unfashionable during the 1960s, as critics complained that he neglected regionalism. They complained that he claimed too much egalitarianism and democracy for a frontier that was restrictive for women and minorities. After Turner's death his former colleague Isaiah Bowman had this to say of his work: "Turner's ideas were curiously wanting in evidence from field studies...He represents a type of historian who rests his case on documents and general impression rather than a scientist who goes out for to see."<ref>Robert H. Block. "Frederick Jackson Turner And American Geography." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 70, No.1 (Mar., 1980), p. 40. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2562823.</ref> His ideas were never forgotten; indeed they influenced the new field of [[environmental history]].<ref name=":0" /> Turner gave a strong impetus to quantitative methods, and scholars using new statistical techniques and data sets have, for example, confirmed many of Turner's suggestions about population movements.<ref>Hall and Ruggles, 2004.</ref> Turner believed that because of his own biases and the amount of conflicting historical evidence that any one method of historical interpretation would be insufficient, that an interdisciplinary method was the most accurate way to analyze history.<ref>Wilbur R. Jacobs. "Wider Frontiers: Questions of War and Conflict in American History: The Strange Solution by Frederick Jackson Turner". ''California Historical Society Quarterly'', vol. 47, no. 3 (Sep. 1968), p. 230. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154299.</ref>
Slatta (2001) maintains that the widespread popularization of Turner's frontier thesis influenced popular histories, motion pictures, and novels, which characterize the West in terms of individualism, frontier violence, and rough justice. [[Disneyland]]'s [[Frontierland]] of the late 20th century represented the myth of rugged [[individualism]] that celebrated what was perceived to be the American heritage. The public has ignored academic historians', David J. Weber for example, anti-Turnerian models, largely because they conflict with and often destroy the legends of Western heritage. However, the work of historians during the 1980s–1990s, some of whom sought to discredit Turner's conception of the frontier and others who have sought to spare the concept while presenting a more balanced and nuanced version of it, have done much to place Western myths in context.<ref>Richard W. Slatta, "Taking Our Myths Seriously." ''[[Journal of the West]]'' (2001) 40#3 pp. 3–5.</ref>


The [[Frederick Jackson Turner Award]] is given annually by the [[Organization of American Historians]] for an author's first scholarly book on [[American history]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Frederick Jackson Turner Award |work=The Organization of American Historians: Programs & Resources: OAH Awards and Prizes |publisher=The Organization of American Historians |url=http://www.oah.org/programs/awards/frederick-jackson-turner-award/ |access-date=December 30, 2016}}</ref>
The [[Frederick Jackson Turner Award]] is given annually by the [[Organization of American Historians]] for an author's first scholarly book on [[American history]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Frederick Jackson Turner Award |work=The Organization of American Historians: Programs & Resources: OAH Awards and Prizes |publisher=The Organization of American Historians |url=http://www.oah.org/programs/awards/frederick-jackson-turner-award/ |access-date=December 30, 2016}}</ref>
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* [[Thomas Perkins Abernethy]] - student of Turner at Harvard; later a noted historian
* [[Thomas Perkins Abernethy]] - student of Turner at Harvard; later a noted historian


==Turner's Writing==
==Bibliography==
* Turner, Frederick Jackson. Edwards, Everett E. (comp.) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003850388 ''The early writings of Frederick Jackson Turner, with a list of all his works'']. Compiled by Everett E. Edwards. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1938.
* Turner, Frederick Jackson. Edwards, Everett E. (comp.) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003850388 ''The early writings of Frederick Jackson Turner, with a list of all his works'']. Compiled by Everett E. Edwards. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1938.
* Turner, Frederick Jackson. {{gutenberg|no=3826|name=Rise of the New West, 1819–1829}}
* Turner, Frederick Jackson. {{gutenberg|no=3826|name=Rise of the New West, 1819–1829}}
Line 90: Line 77:
==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
:
:{{Citizendium}}


==Sources==
==Sources==
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==External links==
==External links==
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Commons category}}
*[https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.htm A biography of Frederick Jackson Turner]
*[https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.htm A biography of Frederick Jackson Turner]
*[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WIReader Frederick Jackson Turner] at the Wisconsin Electronic Reader
*[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WIReader Frederick Jackson Turner] at the Wisconsin Electronic Reader
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1322| name=Frederick Jackson Turner}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1322| name=Frederick Jackson Turner}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frederick Jackson Turner |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10421}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10421}}
* {{cite web|title=Frederick Jackson Turner|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Frederick+Jackson+Turner%22|publisher=[[JSTOR]]}}
* {{cite web|title=Frederick Jackson Turner|url=https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=au%3A%22Frederick+Jackson+Turner%22|publisher=[[JSTOR]]}}
{{American Historical Association presidents}}
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1926–1950}}

Revision as of 17:15, 27 June 2024

Frederick Jackson Turner
Turner c. 1890
Born( 1861 -11-14)November 14, 1861
Portage, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedMarch 14, 1932(1932-03-14) (aged 70)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Known forFrontier thesis
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Institutions

Frederick Jackson Turner (November 14, 1861 – March 14, 1932) was an American historian. He worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until 1910. Then he worked at Harvard University. People know him because of an idea he had which is called the frontier thesis. Also, he trained many other famous historians. He changed how people study history. His focus was the Midwestern United States.

Turner's most famous essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" shared his idea of frontier thesis. A frontier is an area near a country's borders. Turner argued that the United States' frontier had a big impact on the United States' governmentand people.

Many historians argue about if Turner's idea was right. However, they agree that it was important to future writing about history.

Early life and education

Turner was born in Portage, Wisconsin. His parents were Andrew Jackson Turner and Mary Olivia Hanford Turner. Turner read and learned from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Julian Huxley. He was also interested in maps. He graduated in 1884 from the University of Wisconsin.

Turner was very much influenced by the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a poet known for his emphasis on nature; so too was Turner influenced by scientists such as Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Julian Huxley, and the development of cartography.[1] In 1884, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. That school is now named the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2] While there, Turner was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

He earned his PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1890 by writing about the fur trade in Wisconsin. His teacher there was Herbert Baxter Adams.

Career

Turner did not share much writing. However, his ideas changed how many people thought. His most important ideas are named the Frontier Thesis and the Sectional Hypothesis.

Also, he knew much information about United States history. HIs students like Merle Curti and Marcus Lee Hansen learned from him. He also helped them get jobs.

Turner started to teach at Harvard in 1910 because he wanted to do more studying and less teaching.[3] He stopped working in 1922. Then, he started studying at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles.

Frontier thesis idea

Turner first wrote about his frontier thesis idea in 1893. He read a piece called "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" to the American Historical Association in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair). His idea was that the United States was successful because it had taken land in the West from Native Americans. He argued that taking land changed the people of the United States because they needed to work in a new environment.

Influence and legacy

At first, many people liked Turner's ideas. When he died, 3 out of every 5 colleges in the United States had classes that taught frontier history like he did.[4] His ideas also affected popular culture ideas about the Western United States.[5]

In the 1960s, historians started to disagree with Turner more. They said he needed to think about women and people of color in the frontier. The frontier was not always a place for freedom. However, the way he studied history was still copied.[6]

Turner's theories became unfashionable during the 1960s, as critics complained that he neglected regionalism. They complained that he claimed too much egalitarianism and democracy for a frontier that was restrictive for women and minorities. After Turner's death his former colleague Isaiah Bowman had this to say of his work: "Turner's ideas were curiously wanting in evidence from field studies...He represents a type of historian who rests his case on documents and general impression rather than a scientist who goes out for to see."[7] His ideas were never forgotten; indeed they influenced the new field of environmental history.[6] Turner gave a strong impetus to quantitative methods, and scholars using new statistical techniques and data sets have, for example, confirmed many of Turner's suggestions about population movements.[8] Turner believed that because of his own biases and the amount of conflicting historical evidence that any one method of historical interpretation would be insufficient, that an interdisciplinary method was the most accurate way to analyze history.[9]

The Frederick Jackson Turner Award is given annually by the Organization of American Historians for an author's first scholarly book on American history.[10]

Turner's former home in Madison, Wisconsin is located in what is now the Langdon Street Historic District.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[11]

Marriage, family, and death

Turner married Caroline Mae Sherwood in Chicago in November 1889. They had three children: only one survived childhood. Dorothy Kinsley Turner (later Main) was the mother of the historian Jackson Turner Main (1917–2003), a scholar of Revolutionary America who married a fellow scholar.

Frederick Jackson Turner died in 1932 in Pasadena, California,[2] where he had been a research associate at the Huntington Library.

See also

Turner's Writing

  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. Edwards, Everett E. (comp.) The early writings of Frederick Jackson Turner, with a list of all his works. Compiled by Everett E. Edwards. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1938.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. Rise of the New West, 1819–1829 at Project Gutenberg
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. ed. "Correspondence of the French ministers to the United States, 1791–1797" in American Historical Association. Annual report ... for the year 1903. Washington, 1904.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. "Is Sectionalism in America Dying Away?" (1908). American Journal of Sociology, 13: 661–675.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. "Social Forces in American History," presidential address before the American Historical Association American Historical Review, 16: 217–233.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. New York: Holt, 1920.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The significance of the section in American history." Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 8, no. 3 (Mar 1925) pp. 255–280.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Significance of Sections in American History. New York: Holt, 1932.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. "Dear Lady": the letters of Frederick Jackson Turner and Alice Forbes Perkins Hooper, 1910–1932. Edited by Ray Allen Billington. Huntington Library, 1970.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. "Turner's Autobiographic Letter." Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 19, no. 1 (Sep 1935) pp. 91–102.
  • Turner, Frederick Jackson. America's Great Frontiers and Sections: Frederick Jackson Turner's Unpublished Essays edited by Wilbur R. Jacobs. University of Nebraska Press, 1965.

References

  1. ↑ Robert H. Block (1980). "Frederick Jackson Turner and American Geography". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 70 (1): 31–42. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1980.tb01295.x. JSTOR 2562823.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Was Famed as Educator and as Historian". Portage Daily Register. Portage, WI. March 16, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved September 25, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. open access publication – free to read
  3. ↑ Allan G. Bogue, "'Not by Bread Alone': The Emergence of the Wisconsin Idea and the Departure of Frederick Jackson Turner." Archived 2017-08-16 at the Wayback Machine Wisconsin Magazine of History 2002 86(1): 10–23.
  4. ↑ Bogue, Allan G. (1994). "Frederick Jackson Turner Reconsidered". The History Teacher. 27 (2): 195–221. doi:10.2307/494720. ISSN 0018-2745.
  5. ↑ Richard W. Slatta, "Taking Our Myths Seriously." Journal of the West (2001) 40#3 pp. 3–5.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Hutton (2002).
  7. ↑ Robert H. Block. "Frederick Jackson Turner And American Geography." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 70, No.1 (Mar., 1980), p. 40. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2562823.
  8. ↑ Hall and Ruggles, 2004.
  9. ↑ Wilbur R. Jacobs. "Wider Frontiers: Questions of War and Conflict in American History: The Strange Solution by Frederick Jackson Turner". California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3 (Sep. 1968), p. 230. Article Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154299.
  10. ↑ "Frederick Jackson Turner Award". The Organization of American Historians: Programs & Resources: OAH Awards and Prizes. The Organization of American Historians. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Hall of Great Westerners". National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Retrieved November 22, 2019.

Sources

  • Hall, Patricia Kelly, and Steven Ruggles. "'Restless in the midst of Their Prosperity': New Evidence on the Internal Migration of Americans, 1850–2000. Journal of American History 2004 91(3): 829–846.
  • Hutton, T. R. C. "Beating a Dead Horse: the Continuing Presence of Frederick Jackson Turner in Environmental and Western History." International Social Science Review 2002 77(1–2): 47–57. online
  • Scharff, Virginia, et al. "Claims and Prospects of Western History: a Roundtable." Western Historical Quarterly 2000 31(1): 25–46. ISSN 0043-3810 in Jstor.

Further reading

  • Billington, Ray Allen. "Why Some Historians Rarely Write History: A Case Study of Frederick Jackson Turner". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 50, No. 1. (June, 1963), pp. 3–27. in JSTOR.
  • Billington, Ray Allen. America's Frontier Heritage (1984). detailed analysis of Turner's theories from social science perspective.
  • Billington, Ray Allen. ed,. The Frontier Thesis: Valid Interpretation of American History? (1966). The major attacks and defenses of Turner.
  • Billington, Ray Allen. Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Scholar, Teacher. (1973). full-scale biography.
  • Bogue, Allan G. Frederick Jackson Turner: Strange Roads Going Down. (1988) along with Billington (1973), the leading full-scale biography.
  • Burkhart, J. A. "The Turner Thesis: A Historian's Controversy". Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 31, no. 1 (Sep 1947), pp. 70–83.
  • Cronon, E. David. An Uncommon Professor: Frederick Jackson Turner at Wisconsin. Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 78, no. 4 (Summer 1995), pp. 276–293.
  • Cronon, William. "Revisiting the Vanishing Frontier: The Legacy of Frederick Jackson Turner". The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1987), pp. 157–176 online at JSTOR.
  • Curti, Merle E. "Frontier in American History: The Methodological Concepts of Frederick Jackson Turner" in Stuart Rice, ed. Methods in Social Science: A Case Book (1931) pp. 353–367. online edition Archived May 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  • Etulain, Richard W., ed. (2002). Writing Western History: Essays On Major Western Historians. U. of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0874175172.
  • Faragher, John Mack (ed.) Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History and Other Essays. New York: Holt, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8050-3298-7
  • Fernlund, Kevin Jon. "American Exceptionalism or Atlantic Unity? Frederick Jackson Turner and the Enduring Problem of American Historiography", New Mexico Historical Review, 89 (Summer 2014): 359–399.
  • Hofstadter, Richard. "Turner and the Frontier Myth", American Scholar (1949) 18#4 pp. 433–443 in JSTOR.
  • Hofstadter, Richard. The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington (1968); detailed critique of Turner.
  • Jacobs, Wilbur R. On Turner's Trail: 100 Years of Writing Western History (1994).
  • Jensen, Richard. "On Modernizing Frederick Jackson Turner: The Historiography of Regionalism". The Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 3 (July 1980), 307–322. in JSTOR.
  • Limerick, Patricia N. "Turnerians All: The Dream of a Helpful History in an Intelligible World", American Historical Review, 100 (June 1995):697–716. in JSTOR.
  • Nash, Gerald D. Creating the West: Historical Interpretations, 1890-1990. (Calvin P. Horn Lectures in Western History and Culture, University of New Mexico). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1991.
  • Nichols, Roger L. American Frontier and Western Issues: A Historiographical Review (1986) online edition.
  • Ridge, Martin, ed. Frederick Jackson Turner: Wisconsin’s Historian of the Frontier. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press; Reissue edition, 2016.
  • Steiner, Michael C. "From Frontier to Region: Frederick Jackson Turner and the New Western History". Pacific Historical Review, 64 (November 1995): 479–501. in JSTOR.

External links

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