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Example research essay topic: Frederick Jackson Turner Definitions Of Frontier And Pioneer - 1,320 words

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Frederick Jackson Turner's Definitions of "Frontier" and "Pioneer" Within the conceptual framework of this research, we will first elaborate on Turners conception of frontier, to be followed by the assessment of his potential conception for the word pioneer. After that, we will choose a pioneer and see why he would be a pioneer according to Turner's definition. The pioneer we will discuss within the course of this report is Thomas Edison. Eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean, the United States had accomplished its goal of reaching from sea to shining sea. Yet they had attained far more than their original goal. Development of the Western United States had returned man to his Darwinian beginnings, making evolution inevitable.

With each evolutionary stage came the increase of true American character and the decrease of European influence. Frederick Jackson Turner, in his remarkable "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", embraces that point and further analyzes it. Turner argues that it was the countless evolutions of the Frontier, from undeveloped lands to thriving towns and cities, and not European practices or influences that shaped American individualism, nationalism, independence, and democracy. In his thesis, Turner argues that the frontier promoted American economic and political independence. (Turner, p. 43) Even after the American Revolution, the United States still received much of its final goods from European nations.

However, in order to promote economic growth and manufacture in the United States, the government had imposed a set of tariffs and other economic sanctions on foreign goods. Despite this, Turner argues that it was the West that largely aided American self-sufficiency. The growing west, in the undeveloped state that it was in, needed many materials to advance its status. It became self-sufficient, producing much of its own goods and receiving much from the Eastern United States as well. In its development, the Frontier had succeeded in Americanizing the economy and freeing it from European grasp. (Limericks, p. 86) Turner also explains that the Frontier had conferred upon the United States a strong sense of nationalism. The openness of the United States with regard to immigration had led to an influx of foreigners, turning the country into somewhat of a melting pot.

However, Turner explains that the frontier has embraced the diversity, creating what he deemed a "composite nationality", or a large and diverse family. (Turner, p. 77) Turner also explains that the evolution of the frontier gradually expunged provincial identities, often merging or eliminating regional groups, such as the Southern aristocrat and Northern Yankee, drastically changing the social hierarchies of the country. The West had begun to promote the blight of sectionalism and inject bursts of nationalism in the country. It had also done another invaluable thing though. The West had aided in the downfall of slavery, viewing it as a sectional trait of the South that must be eliminated. The men of the frontier believed that the nation could not be half-free and half-slave.

They brought this qualm with them to Washington, helping to lead to the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. The Frontier, through its breakdown of sectionalism had invigorated the United States's else of nationalism. Turner rationalizes that the Frontier also promoted individualism and thus Americanized Americans. The federal government, by providing cheap or free lands, had constructed a safety valve which protected America from uprisings of the poverty-stricken or discontented. (Turner, p. 114) The frontier had taken these men and by providing them with free, but often uncharted land, had transformed them into adventurers. As the first virtually free Americans, frontiersmen had an unpolished roughness to them.

They defined the term outdoors men; strong, practical, rational and investigative. (Turner, p. 129) Most importantly, Turner felt that the dominant individualism frontiersmen displayed led to the development of individualist democracy. With the absence of eastern institutions, frontiersmen were forced to rely on their own intuition and vigor. Frontiersmen were heartland Americans, people who overturned eastern deference to authority and depended on their own perceptiveness and energy to develop the West. Most importantly, Turner suggests that the frontier disregarded eastern homage to authority and promoted a distinctly American democracy. Turner felt that American democracy and institutions were not simply a result of European influence, nor were they a result of agreements such as the Mayflower Compact or the Massachusetts Bay Charter.

American democracy was born in the forests of the West, developing even further with each new evolutionary stage of the frontier. (Limericks, p. 143) Turner explains that American democracy was shaped by various events and occurrences in frontier society or frontier-like settings and resulted in a government whose people were often disinclined to obey. The frontier bred a democracy born of free-land, characterized by individualism and a lack of tolerance of central authority. Therefore, a pioneer for Tuner would be someone who is a bright individual and an intellectual person, moreover, someone who strives to make America a better country to live in and succeeds in this endeavor. Thomas Edison is the best representation of pioneer according to this definition.

The standard of living prior to Thomas Edison's great inventions was of poorer quality. Up to the latter half of the nineteenth century, the machine had always been closely bound to its prime mover. It could not be placed too far because of the inefficiency of belts and shafting as a method of distributing energy. Energy and power is everything, it is the key to a working invention. Each gear, joint, or wheel was a source of power loss. Known for his brilliant inventions and ideas, Thomas Edison improved the standard of living at the turn of the twentieth century with such inventions as the electric light bulb and the electric generator.

At the start of the nineteenth century, electricity was a scientific curiosity, a plaything of the laboratory. As the result of widespread investigation and experiment, however, it became a commercially useful form of energy, such as illumination. For the first time electricity offered something useful not only in industry, or in commerce, or on the theatre stage, but in every home. Electric lighting would now replace the traditional gaslights that were used. Thomas Edison improved the standard of living during the late 1800 s with the electric light bulb. With his ideas and inventions, he helped the American way of life and opened the way to lighting around the world.

Edison's invention of lighting using electricity would now begin to phase out the gaslight era. Now that the gaslight era was coming to an end, gas stocks began to tumble. People believed he would now replace gas lighting with electricity. Edison's first announcement that he had a practical filament that had the necessary endurance for long illumination was premature. Not long after, he found a filament that would work for long periods of illumination. Unlike other inventors who failed, Edison kept trying and succeeded.

Edison also used electricity for generators. The generators would be the source of power for the lights. They would be more efficient and easier to use than the old machines. He invented the Long-Waisted Mary Ann. This was a more efficient generator than any other. This was an even bigger step towards electric light.

After Edison's invention of his electric light bulb and electric generator came the development of a system of power, wiring, and bulbs. In 1876, Edison moved to a new research facility in Menlo Park. He wanted to get away from Newark because it was filled with distractions. After starting small, in 1882 Edison began to make a profitable success of his incandescent lighting system.

Being the innovator that he was, Thomas Edison was a true pioneer to America. His incredible work ethic became a model for other inventors that followed in Edison's footsteps. Words Count: 1, 280. Bibliography: Turner, F. J. The Significance of the Frontier in American History.

New York: Harper Collins, 1984. Limericks, P. The Headline Frontier. Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, 2001.


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