Hollitz 8

By 1900, the West, as they knew it, was no longer considered a frontier by the U.S. Census Bureau. For a couple of hundred years, Americans were obsessed with expansion and Manifest Destiny, endeavoring to push our country's boundaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Yet, most historians believed that our country was primarily shaped by our European roots. In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner delivered a paper to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; mainstream historians were aghast as this young upstart's look at the frontier's place in American history. Turner argued that the frontier was extremely significant to the development of who we are as a people and as a country. Why the very idea!!

As a thinking historian, it's your turn to decide what Turner concluded and if it has merit.

In the Hollitz chapter 8, answer question #4: How do the experiences of specific groups of people, as reflected in the primary sources, support or modify Turner's view of western settlement? Does Turner's thesis reflect a mythic view of the West or real experience?

This is a comparison - Turner's thesis compared to primary sources. Make sure to support your position with plenty of details.