Prompts for Thinking about Turner & Limerick

Here are some prompts to get you thinking about Frederick Jackson Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Patricia Limerick's "Adventures of the Frontier in the 20th Century."

Where did the idea of the frontier come from, and to what extent is the concept still useful today? This is this week's "key question."

While we are used to thinking about the U.S. as a "frontier culture" and Western expansion as the most important story of America, this idea wasn't invented until the end of the 19th century. Turner's "frontier thesis" developed the idea of the frontier and its importance that we still hold today. More recently, historians like Patrica Limerick have criticized Turner's frontier thesis, arguing that it is one-sided and does not take the story of other "frontiers"--such as the U.S.-Mexico border, or Asian Americans' movement from East to West--into account. In other words, Limerick is writing with a contemporary perspective, shaped by multiculturalism, while Turner is the more "traditional" historian.

These are difficult readings, and you may find yourself stuck when you sit down to write this week's blog post. If this happens to you, think smaller. Take a short section of the Limerick essay, for example, and respond to that. What is her main point? Why does she think it's so important to revise Turner's thesis? What do you think about her arguments?

Don't forget: your 500-word post is due FRIDAY by 3:00 pm!! Make sure you give yourself enough time to finish the readings and reflect so that you can post by then.