Frederick Jackson Turner

Meaning

1. 1proper nounproper

   An American historian, 1861 to 1932, who argued that the frontier shaped American democracy and character.

   Grammar: Written with capital letters; Turner alone is a common short form: Turner argued that the frontier created American individualism.

   Frederick Jackson Turner presented his frontier thesis at a historians' meeting in 1893.

   Students read Frederick Jackson Turner when they study westward expansion in the United States.

   Frederick Jackson Turner taught at the University of Wisconsin and later at Harvard.

Common combinations

Turner's frontier thesis

Turner's frontier thesis changed how Americans taught their own history.

the Turner thesis

Later scholars revised the Turner thesis to include Native Americans and women.

Frederick Jackson Turner argued

Frederick Jackson Turner argued that open land shaped democratic habits.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History

He read The Significance of the Frontier in American History in a seminar.

critics of Turner

Critics of Turner say he ignored the people already living in the West.

Word family

Turnerian adjective

relating to Turner's ideas

Commonly confused: Frederick Jackson Turner or Frederick Douglass?

Practice

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