The frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.
Interpretation
The closing of the American frontier marks a significant turning point in the nation's development.
Frederick Jackson Turner's quote reflects on the idea that the American frontier, which symbolized the opportunity for expansion and growth, has come to an end. This closing signifies the conclusion of a formative era in American history, shaping the country's identity and its path forward. Turner's thesis suggests that the experiences of living and settling on the frontier were central to the American character, and without this frontier, a new chapter in American history must be written.
In practice
In a discussion about American history, we can reference Turner's quote to highlight the importance of the frontier period.
That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom - these are the traits of the frontier.
So long as free land exists, the opportunity for a competency exists, and economic power secures political power.
I give it as my fixed opinion, that but for our graduated cadets, the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish.
Our prime minister could embrace and forgive the people who killed our beloved sons and fathers, and so he should, but he could not, would not, apologise to the Aboriginal people for 200 years of murder and abuse. The battle against the Turks, he said in Gallipoli, was our history, our tradition. The war against the Aboriginals, he had already said at home, had happened long ago. The battle had made us; the war that won the continent was best forgotten
In Constantinople, more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in the years 342-343 than by all the persecutions by pagans in the history of Rome.
I grew up in the shadow of the Trujillato, saw how the regime had ravaged so many families.
Apart from the intrinsic interest of the complex system of beliefs the Puritans carried with them, their lives give a clue to what it meant at the beginning to be American. And the level of scholarship dealing with them has reached a point where it can address the human condition itself.
The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
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