Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson Turner ( born November 14, 1861 in Portage, Wisconsin, † March 14, 1932 in San Marino, California ) was an American historian.

He is one of the most important historians of the United States.

Life

Frederick Jackson Turner was born on November 14, 1861 in the state of Wisconsin in the small town of Portage. His parents came from the middle class and Turner came through his father, a journalist, early in the contact with the policies of the Republicans. His birthplace Portage was a classic Frontier City, the only city rights in 1854 and was settled in Turner's childhood immigrants from Europe. Portage was part of the Frontier and dominated the streetscape nor by loggers and Indians. Turner began in 1878 at the University in Wisconsin in Madison his studies in American history and became decisively influenced by his teacher, the historian William F. Allen, who was an advocate of a social theory of evolution. This theory had great influence on Turner's later work. 1888 Turner took at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to study for a doctorate. He taught from 1898 to 1910 at the Wisconsin University, and from 1910 to 1924 at Harvard University. Turner joined various disciplines, such as sociology, history and political science together, which was also reflected in his 1893 formulated theses. His most important essays are published in "The Frontier in American History " and "The Significance of Sections in American History ". He spent his life in Pasedena, California, where he helped an " Anglo - American history and literary Research Center " building. Frederick J. Turner died on March 14, 1932 in Pasadena. His essay collection "The Significance of Sections in American History " in 1933 won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Frontier Thesis

In his most important work, the 1893 published essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History ," stated Turner on the thesis that American Exceptionalism is a result of the continuous interaction between civilization and wilderness on the American Frontier. The permanent struggle with nature had given the United States a position outside the usual rules and laws of human history. The conditions under which developed the American society had been so much different that it was free of the difficulties and limitations of European societies. The Frontier Thesis and American exceptionalism are now controversial and questionable concepts of historiography, but have the American historiography in the 20th century strongly influenced and shaped.

Work (selection)

• The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893 )
• The Significance of Sections in American History