During the 1890’s, the quest began for a ‘New History’ in the United States that would challenge the patient application of the “scientific” method. The 1890 census report had officially stated that the complete settlement of America’s western frontier marked the end of Manifest Destiny. Westward expansion had been an integral aspect of the American identity and its citizen were left wondering what would continue to propel the United States into a rapidly modernizing world. Progressive historian Frederick Jackson Turner wrote less and influenced his own generation more than any important historian. In his works, Turner spelled out his version of a New History in the modern spirit. Although his writings were few and limited, Turner promoted westward American expansion as unique and the conditions settlers faced in settling the frontier as the exception. The thing of first significance in Turner’s work was the approach. Until his appearance American historians were, with few exceptions, primarily interested in politics and constitutional problems, and few essayed interpretation. Against such attitudes Turner revolted. Because he had been part of a rapidly changing order, he saw American history as a huge stage on which men, in close contact with raw nature, were ever engaged in the evolution of society from simple beginnings to complex ends. According to Turner, historians had answered “what” long enough; the time had come to inquire as to “how” things came about. America, as it then existed, was the product of the interaction of “economic, political and social forces in contact with peculiar geographic factors.” Such an understanding would be the basis for Turner’s claim of American exceptionalism. In the years following ... ... middle of paper ... ... the industrial machine was systemic. The process of industrialization produced no clear-cut winner or loser. Workers benefited from industrialization and its subsequent problems in that they found a practical political platform in the Progressives, and massive strides were made in the way of better social organization. But Carnegie, Gould, and other ‘captains of industry’ too profited handsomely by providing little more than a job to their poverty-stricken workers. One product of industrialism that was proven workers and entrepreneurs alike was that people have preferences and desires and the government should be used to ensure consumer protection. Ultimately, the process of industrialization may be considered a ‘revolution’ in that, unlike previous generations, people began to see themselves as well as their government as intrinsic instead of instrumental.
This is a report on the book Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion, written by Stephen B. Oates. The story is about a slave revolt that happened in 1831 and the person who led it, Nat Turner. It tells of his life, the area and time in which he lived, and of the bloody revolt as well as the bloodier repercussions after it was suppressed.
After careful consideration, I have decided to use the books dedicated to David Walker’s Appeal and The Confessions of Nat Turner and compare their similarities and differences. It is interesting to see how writings which has the same purpose of liberating enslaved Black people can be interpreted so differently, especially in the matter of who was reading them. Akin to how White people reacted to Turner’s Rebellion, which actually had promising results while most would see the immediate backlashes and to which I intend to explain more. As most would put emphasis on the Confession itself, I assume, I decided to focus more on the reactions and related documents regarding the Rebellion.
In a lively account filled that is with personal accounts and the voices of people that were in the past left out of the historical armament, Ronald Takaki proffers us a new perspective of America’s envisioned past. Mr. Takaki confronts and disputes the Anglo-centric historical point of view. This dispute and confrontation is started in the within the seventeenth-century arrival of the colonists from England as witnessed by the Powhatan Indians of Virginia and the Wamapanoag Indians from the Massachusetts area. From there, Mr. Takaki turns our attention to several different cultures and how they had been affected by North America. The English colonists had brought the African people with force to the Atlantic coasts of America. The Irish women that sought to facilitate their need to work in factory settings and maids for our towns. The Chinese who migrated with ideas of a golden mountain and the Japanese who came and labored in the cane fields of Hawaii and on the farms of California. The Jewish people that fled from shtetls of Russia and created new urban communities here. The Latinos who crossed the border had come in search of the mythic and fabulous life El Norte.
Kaye, we have an excellent perspectives of what Nat Turner’s life is like as he become today saying of “The bloody revolt slave leader in the history”. Since he was known as “The bloody revolt slave leader”, it overthrown the fear for many people, including John Hampden Pleasants, who is a Newspaper Editor. Pleasants express his concern about the uprising being the product of more than just one neighborhood because it could restrict the limits to the neighborhood and lead consequence to the other countries. This has led to the subject of huge debate from the neighborhood. He also mentions that Turner’s rebellion is a “mischief perpetrated” because it bring numbers of the negroes to a thousand or 1200 mean, which is like a huge amount of
The time period from 1860 to 1914 is defined by the surfacing of the "mass societies." The social order practically ignored the industrial proletariat and the foundation for a reform was laid. The industrial proletariat refers to all the workers who desperately depended on their wages. These people had absolutely no role in politics or in society in general. Even as late as 1860, the workers had to depend on themselves only to improve their social conditions. During the Industrial Revolution, as the number of machines mu...
Nat Turner was an African American slave who influenced the slave culture to believe in the positives in order to improve their lifestyle. He influenced his fellow slaves by rebelling and fighting against slavery. The results for Nat Turner did not turn out how he wanted, until after his life was gone. His influences changed the future of the United States and the future of African Americans.
The author’s main theme of the chapter “Jackson’s Frontier—and Turner’s” seems to be theories on the creation and expansion of American development. The main person discussed in this chapter is Fredrick Jackson Turner, a historian from the University of Wisconsin. Turner presented a thesis titled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” at the World’s Columbian Exposition and in the Johns Hopkins University seminar room in 1893. The central focus of his thesis was that “the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development” (130). This thesis sparked years of scholarship and historical debate after being examined under critical scrutiny. Before
The significance of Frontier in American History is a thesis paper that was written and delivered by Jackson Turner on 12th July 1893. Turner delivered this paper during a yearly meeting of the fledging American Historical Association that was being held at Chicago. I believe this paper had a lot of impact on the study of American History specifically in colleges and universities. The original paper was informed from twelve sources. Turner wrote this paper and formed the frontier theory following the work of Achille Loria- An Italian economist- who proposed that the key to changes in human society was free land and that America would be the best place to research on this proposal. The other event that precipitated Turners paper was the announcement of superintendent in 1890 census which claimed that there is insufficient free land in US to allow frontier to feature in the census report as had been previously done until 1790 (Turnver, 3).
However, it is relevant that we understand the ripple effect that Turner’s thesis had on the world. Soon to be President had already written three of the fourteen four volumes of Winning the West, prior to reading the pamphlet. The concern I see that effects our society is that Turner was able through a speech able to not on influence but encourage Roosevelt to continue to write more in regards to Winning the Race in the West. The impact of Turner’s ideas and Roosevelt’s rise to presidency are a great indication of how significant the thesis was through the “frontiers” which included the Chinese Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine-American War. During both of these engagements, American soldiers were accused and found guilty of brutally beating, killing and even raping women and men in both regions. The tolerance of “manifest destiny” was still alive and well as Roosevelt then Governor of the Philippines would soon take over as President of the United States in 1904. Although this was a negative impact, this is still significant to our history even
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
The Frontier Thesis has been very influential in people’s understanding of American values, government and culture until fairly recently. Frederick Jackson Turner outlines the frontier thesis in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. He argues that expansion of society at the frontier is what explains America’s individuality and ruggedness. Furthermore, he argues that the communitarian values experienced on the frontier carry over to America’s unique perspective on democracy. This idea has been pervasive in studies of American History until fairly recently when it has come under scrutiny for numerous reasons. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, William Cronon argues that many scholars, Turner included, fall victim to the false notion that a pristine, untouched wilderness existed before European intervention. Turner’s argument does indeed rely on the idea of pristine wilderness, especially because he fails to notice the serious impact that Native Americans had on the landscape of the Americas before Europeans set foot in America.
The era that marked the end of civil war and the beginning of the twentieth century in the united states of America was coupled with enormous economic and industrial developments that attracted diverse views and different arguments on what exactly acquisition of wealth implied on the social classes in the society. It was during this time that the Marxist and those who embraced his ideologies came out strongly to argue their position on what industrial revolution should imply in an economic world like America. In fact, there was a rapid rise in the gross national product of the United States between 1874 and 1883. This actually sparked remarkable consequences on the political, social and economic impacts. In fact, the social rejoinder to industrialization had extensive consequences on the American society. This led to the emergence of social reform movements to discourse on the needs of the industrialized society. Various theories were developed to rationalize the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Various reformers like Andrew Carnegie, Henry George and William Graham Sumner perceived the view on the obligation of the wealthy differently. This paper seeks to address on the different views held by these prominent people during this time of historical transformations.
During much of the 1800s, America grew in size and population, and Americans began to develop their own identity as a group of people and as a country. This Westward Expansion is known as a “romantic” time in American history, with larger-than-life figures, explorers, trappers, and others who traveled west and triumphed over both the elements of nature and the Native people. These explorers and travelers felt as though they were bringing “civilization” into an “untamed” land (Hollitz, 173). America provided many new experiences for the Europeans, including unfamiliar weather, new geographic features such as mountains and deserts, and the Native people. The further west into the United States territory that the settlers explored, the more
Many people see history as a set of facts, or as a collection of stories. The reality, however, is that history is a fluid timeline. Each act of an individual or a group has an effect on others. Each moment in history is a building block that, good or bad, contributes to the stability of the next. This can be seen clearly in American history, as there have been several developments since the 1800’s that have played major roles on the growth of the nation.
Industrial revolution – the general historical phenomenon characterizing a certain moment in the development of capitalism.