Turner's "Frontier Thesis"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses William Turner's "Frontier Thesis." The paper discusses Turner's idea of certain characteristics of people who live on the frontier, such as common traits of strength and brains, practicality and inventiveness. The paper then compares those characteristics described by Turner, to those found in John Ford's film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance".

From the Paper:

"This is the West. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend," states the editor of the Shinbone Star towards the end of John Ford's classic, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." The legendary heroes of America's western frontier, represented in film or story, tend to embody certain attributes laid down in Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis." In this thesis Turner states that frontier life produced common traits of strength and brains, practicality and inventiveness, and a dominant individualism that either works for a good or an evil agenda and that all of these common characteristics are accompanied by a buoyant and exuberant lifestyle stemming from a certain amount of freedom of the self that only frontier life offered. Turner claims that all of these traits are developed in all frontier livers, historic or legendary. Turner's assumed common traits of frontier personalities mirror those found in the characters of Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

Sample of Sources Used:

• William Turner "Frontier Thesis"

More papers on Turner's "Frontier Thesis":

• Book Review # 115085 : "Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis"
• Essay # 51201 : "The Turner Thesis"
• Book Review # 128610 : "Women and the American Frontier"

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