Billington's "The Frontier and the American Character"
Historical interpretations are constantly being created, modified and refuted. One of the more controversial hypotheses in American history was put forth by Frederick Jackson Turner in what is known as "The Frontier Thesis". In the Frontier Thesis, Turner states that the American character was shaped by the constant availability of new land. This interpretation has been vigorously questioned and defended in the past several decades. Historian Ray Allen Billington discusses Turner's thesis in "The Frontier and the American Character." Billington admits that while the Turner thesis has some significant shortcomings, as a whole the thinking behind the document was correct. The Frontier Thesis contains three significant flaws. Turner contends that
The factory laborers did not have enough capital to start a farm as they were making a mere dollar a day and they needed approximately $1,000 to create a farm. However, Billington notes that the Turner rationale is not without merit. the westward expansion was an "orderly procession of civilization, marching single file. As a result, Australia developed an urban environment and a labor oriented government. This conjecture states that human is too complex to merely interpret history through one type of knowledge, rather one must explore different branches of history in order to see the complete picture. In Turner's "The Significance of History," he wrote about his belief in the "multiple causation" theory. When looking for the true reason for why a historical event occurred, one will not find a simple cause and effect relationship but rather a complex web of interactions that changed the course of human events. Despite the flaws of using this viewpoint to explain the entire development of the American citizen, it is clearly useful in many cases. "The lack of any national or external controls made self-rule a hard necessity," as a result democracy took hold in America to a much greater extent then in Europe. " A final defect in Turner's thinking is his contention that the frontier served as a "safety valve" for eastern workers fleeing industrial depressions. Turner's environmentally oriented thinking is valid and has profound implications if considered in conjunction with other interpretations. " Billington notes that this comment was an oversimplification of what actually occurred. A second miscalculation by Turner was calling the land "free. The Frontier Thesis, while clearly not correct that the environment alone shaped the American immigrant into the "New Man", does make several compelling points. The westward expansion was far more complex.
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