Frederick Jackson Turner

1. To Turner 1980 marked the end of Western settlement and he consideres this end " the closing of a great historic movement." In Turner's thesis he states the the end of the Western settlement marked by the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 " closed the first period of American history."

2. Turner considered the American frontier different from the European frontier because he believed that settlers moving into the American frontier had to stray away from the european methods and adopt new method which possessed a new identity for America. The European frontier was much like a microcosm of Europe it self. "It was the frontier of europe in a very real sense."

3. According to Turner, the frontier helped remove the european customs and help implement more 'American' methods and promoted nationalism and individualism. I believe that the frontier helped shape only part of the American life. I believe that other factors such as immigration, slavery, and industrialization also help shape American life. These factors including the frontier helped create a unique American view that exists have today.

4. Turner believed that "the growth of nationalism and the evolution of American political institution were dependent on the advances of the frontier." Many disagree with this concept and believe that the key to American individualism is the issue of slavery, Civil war and immigration. "when American history comes to be rightly viewed it will be seen that the slavery question is an incident. In the period from the end of the first half of the present century to the close of the Civil War slavery rose to primary, but far from exclusive, importance...."

5. I don't believe that there are any frontiers left for discovery. Almost all of the planet has been searched, discovered, and settled. All of the land is divided by religion, politics and economy.