Post Two: Frederick Jackson Turner

Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History is an idealistic work that emphasized the greatness of the American spirit while closing the "first" chapter on the American West due to the frontier no longer being present during the time Turner wrote his thesis. The duality of these elements - the closing of the history of the West while speaking loftily of prospects for Americans seemed optimistic when comparing Turner's contemporary Americans to historical Americans of the past. In commenting on the historic American Turner emphasized: "He knew not where he was going, but he was on his way, cheerful, optimistic, busy, and buoyant." (Chapter XI page 1 Turner) This ebullient American prophesy coupled with other idealistic and sometimes moralistic descriptions of the western past contributed to transform western history into legend and then legend into myth.

William Deverell's article, Fighting Words, The Significance of the American West in the History of the United States, challenges Turner's views. He goes further to assert that study of Western History includes the study of many places and processes. The places he suggest are regional and are varied. He does state "that the remote, heroicized West is itself more representative of national character that any other chronological or regional chapter in the text of popularized American history". (p 187 Deverell) But he does not totally reject Turner's approach as he states: "I am heartened by Professor Chronon's encouragement that the West is studied best when it is studied in light of the broadest concerns and problems of American History". (p 187 Deverell)

Virginia Scharff's article, Claims and Prospects of Western History: A Round Table, strengthens the assertion for a regional and local approach to the history of the West. She introduces John Mack Faragher's revelation of his exposure to the local history of Southern California where he grew up in the Artesia and Redlands areas. Faraher's father migrating from
South Dakota to California after losing his farm during the Depression revealed a personal history that highlighted (from Deverell's article) a regional history of the West that incorporated a process - the process being environmental catastrophe and economic depression. The books Faragher encounters in his youth describes a different West compared to the West Turner left behind for us. This is a West from a non Anglocized point of view. I would like to explore some of these works including Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theadora Kroeber and Ruth Tuck's Not Without a Fist.