Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier in American History collects the essays in which he developed his famous thesis: that the existence of a moving western frontier had been the defining force in shaping American democracy, individualism, and national character. First presented at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and expanded in subsequent essays, Turner’s argument became the most influential and contested interpretation in American historical writing.
Whether taken as a foundational insight or a flawed ideology of expansion, the frontier thesis cannot be ignored by anyone seeking to understand how Americans have interpreted their own history. Download this free EPUB for Turner’s essential collection in its original form.