Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional?

Does the frontier experience make America exceptional? When Frederick Jackson Turner presented this idea in 1893 as the core of his now-famous thesis, he set in motion a debate that historians of the American West have contended with ever since. The concept of a frontier, a moving boundary that defined civilization and circumscribed the Wild West, was not new--though the idea that it made Americans unique was. Turner's paper is reprinted in its entirety, followed by articles by three "New Western" historians who bring the dialogue up to the present day by applying modern concerns to this long-standing issue. The last selection looks forward, asking what Turner's ideas mean for America as we head into the twenty-first century.

RICHARD W. ETULAIN is professor of history and director of the Center for the American West at the Univesity of New Mexico. In 1999, he will serve as president of the Western History Association. Etulain is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including The American West: A Twentieth-Century History with Michael P. Malone (1989) and Reimaginging the Modern American West: A Century of Fiction, History, and Art (1996), which won the Western Heritage and John Caughey Awards.

 Foreword
  Preface
  A Note for Students
    
PART I. INTRODUCTION
    
  The Frontier and American Exceptionalism
    Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier
    Historians and the Turner Thesis
    
PART II. SOME CURRENT QUESTIONS
    
  1. How was the idea of the "frontier" born?
    Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History
    
  2. How has the idea of the frontier shaped our imagination?
    Richard White, When Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill Cody Both Played Chicago in 1893
    
  3. Whose frontier is it?
    Glenda Riley, Frederick Jackson Turner Overlooked the Ladies
    
  4. Is the frontier idea still valid for the twenty-first century?
    Martin Ridge, The Life of an Idea: The Significance of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis
    
  5. Will region replace frontier?
    Donald Worster, New West, True West: Interpreting the Region's History
    
  6. How should we interpret the frontier/West?
    Patricia Nelson Limerick, Michael P. Malone, Gerald Thompson, and Elliott West, Western History: Why the Past May Be Changing
    
  Making Connections
  Suggestions for Further Reading