Rethinking Turner’s Thesis

Rethinking Turner’s Thesis

Miniaci Performing Arts Center

Turner’s Thesis is a theory that explains various aspects of contemporary American society with respect to the development of the Western frontier. This paper highlights some major ideas in Turner’s Thesis, such as how Americans evolved from their European ancestors, how some of them acquired their rugged individualism, and how democracy was preserved etc. within the context of life in the West. This paper also examines the challenges to Turner’s Thesis posed by modern historians based on new interpretations of historical events.