The makings of Americans

The historian Frederick Jackson Turner was born on November 14th, 1861. At the age of 32 he published one of the most seminal papers of American history, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” It argued that the country’s Westward expansion had produced a culture and identity that was distinctive and different from that of Europe and the East coast.

Dealing with the challenges and hazards of the frontier, those of taming the wilderness, produced a new breed of American, one characterized by a rugged readiness to cope. It produced, said Turner, the can-do spirit that characterized the American spirit. As each generation of pioneers moved Westward, they relinquished the baggage of European culture and its ideas and institutions, and developed new practices shaped by their new environment. The frontier produced the characteristics recognized as distinctively American, the spirit of initiative, of informality, of a vibrant democracy, and even of crudeness and violence.

Turner’s frontier thesis was hugely influential. It has come in for a share of criticism, of course, but there is a strong feeling that persists that he had put his finger on something significant. Later historian have traced the development of political innovations such as the ballot initiative and the recall petition as ones that arose in the West as the frontier moved across the continent. It is the American West, not the East, that has given rise to the cultural and character differences that separate Americans from Europeans.

It is significant that in the wills left by American settlers, the lists of the books in their libraries are roughly 90 percent about self-help and improvement. Even today, the New York Times best seller list of non-fiction works feature far more self-help and improvement books that their European counterparts. “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” and “How I made $1 million in real estate,” are typical.

Since there is no longer a frontier there to be tamed, or a wilderness to be faced, some commentators have suggested that the character-forming influences they represented have gone, and that Americans will gradually become less “American.” Others have suggested that if humans do set off to explore and settle other planets, then space will represent a new frontier to be faced with courage and resolution. Science fiction writers have long clambered aboard this bandwagon. “Space - the final frontier,” is a theme common to many of them.

Some would argue that a settled and more civilized life is preferable to the rough ruggedness of a frontier culture, but there is a case for suggesting that humans as a species solve problems, and there will always be a need for the problem-solving mentality because humanity will always face problems. Frederick Jackson Turner was undoubtedly in the latter group.