Abstract

Toward the close of the nineteenth century, just as American pragmatism began to approach its classic form, Frederick Jackson Turner penned what was to become the single most famous definition of the American character. In the lead essay of his book The Frontier in American History, Turner tells us that "the frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization". What he means is that the idea of the frontier—not the confrontation of slavery or the experience of European colonization—was the most significant factor in the formation of what has come to be seen as uniquely American.By "frontier," Turner means that curious zone in which "wilderness" and "civilization" meet and exercise a.