Writing Assignment 1B
\nWRITING ASSIGNMENT 1B: The American Frontier-Reality versus Myth.
\nThe history of the American frontier has celebrated the opportunities that the West offered to everyone. Some early historians glorified the American frontier and the role it played in developing the American character. Others have argued that what has been presented is a myth. How much was the truth, and what was a myth?<\/p>\n
INSTRUCTIONS:
\nTo prepare you must complete the following readings:<\/p>\n
Review all sections of Chapter 18. Consider the following questions for your essay. The questions in each section will Help you in understanding the content and to prepare for the essay.
\nThe questions can and should be addressed in the essay, but they should not constitute the only discussion in the essay.
\nHow did this period of westward expansion differ from earlier ones?
\nHow did industry and the late 19th-century American economy influence the transformation of the West?
\nWhat role did the federal government play?
\nRead the linked essay titled DEBATING THE PAST: THE FRONTIER AND THE WEST.Download DEBATING THE PAST: THE FRONTIER AND THE WEST.
\nThe Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the
\nAmerican People, 5\/e
\nAlan Brinkley, Columbia University<\/p>\n
Debating the Past<\/p>\n
Chapter Sixteen: The Conquest of the Far West
\nWhere Historians Disagree – The “Frontier” and the West
\nThe emergence of the history of the American West as an important
\nfield of scholarship can be traced to the paper Frederick Jackson
\nTurner delivered at a meeting of the American Historical Association in
\n1893: “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” Turner
\nstated his thesis simply. The settlement of the West by white
\nAmericans–“the existence of an area of free land, its continuous
\nrecession, and the advance of American settlement westward”–was
\nthe central story of the nation’s history. The process of westward
\nexpansion had transformed a desolate and savage land into modern
\ncivilization. It had also continually renewed American ideas of
\ndemocracy and individualism.
\nIn the first half of the twentieth century, virtually everyone who wrote
\nabout the West echoed at least part of Turner’s argument. Ray Allen
\nBillington’s Westward Expansion (1949) was almost wholly consistent
\nwith the Turnerian model. In The Great Plains (1931) and The Great
\nFrontier (1952), Walter Prescott Webb similarly emphasized the
\nbravery and ingenuity of white settlers in the Southwest.
\nSerious efforts to displace the Turner thesis as the explanation of
\nwestern American history began after World War II. In Virgin Land
\n(1950), Henry Nash Smith examined many of the same heroic images
\nof the West that Turner and his disciples had presented; but he treated
\nthose images less as descriptions of reality than as myths. Earl
\nPomeroy challenged Turner’s notion of the West as a place of
\nindividualism, innovation, and democratic renewal. “Conservatism,
\ninheritance, and continuity bulked at least as large,” he claimed.
\nHoward Lamar, in Dakota Territory, 1861-1889 (1956) and The Far
\nSouthwest (1966), emphasized the highly diverse characters of
\ndifferent areas of the West.
\nThe western historians who began to emerge in the late 1970s
\nlaunched an even more emphatic attack on the Turner thesis and the
\nidea of the “frontier.” “New” western historians such as Richard White,
\nPatricia Nelson Limerick, William Cronon, Donald Worster, Peggy
\nPascoe, and many others challenged the Turnerians on a number of
\npoints.
\nTurner saw the nineteenth-century West as “free land” awaiting the
\nexpansion of Anglo-American settlement and American democracy.
\nThe “new western historians” have rejected the concept of an empty
\n“frontier,” emphasizing instead the elaborate and highly developed
\ncivilizations that already existed in the region. White, English-speaking
\nAmericans, they have argued, did not so much settle the West as
\nconquer it. And they continue to share the region not only with the
\nIndians and Hispanic (the best nursing writing service, a studybay for your papers)s who preceded them there, but also with African
\nAmericans, Asians, Latin Americans, and others who flowed into the
\nWest at the same time they did.
\nThe Turnerian West was a place of heroism, triumph, and above all
\nprogress, dominated by the feats of brave white men. The West the
\nnew historians describe is a less triumphant (and less masculine) place
\nin which bravery and success coexist with oppression, greed, and
\nfailure; in which decaying ghost towns, bleak Indian reservations,
\nimpoverished barrios, and ecologically devastated landscapes are as
\ncharacteristic of western development as great ranches, rich farms,
\nand prosperous cities.
\nTo Turner and his disciples, the nineteenth-century West was a place
\nwhere rugged individualism flourished and replenished American
\ndemocracy. The new scholars point out that the region was
\ninextricably tied to a national and international capitalist economy.
\nWesterners depended on government-subsidized railroads for access
\nto markets, federal troops for protection from Indians, and (later)
\ngovernment-funded dams and canals for irrigating their fields and
\nsustaining their towns.
\nAnd while Turner defined the West as a process–a process of
\nsettlement that came to an end with the “closing of the frontier” in the
\nlate nineteenth century–the new historians see the West as a region.
\nIts distinctive history did not end in 1890, but continues into our own
\ntime.<\/p>\n
Consider the following questions for your essay. These questions can and should be addressed in the essay, but it should not constitute the only discussion in the essay.
\nWhat is Frederick Turner’s “frontier thesis,” and what are the criticisms of it? The link will direct you to Turner’s Thesis, The Frontier in American HistoryLinks to an external site..
\nExamine the information provided on these links, which address “new views on the history of the American West.” They are not full articles but do provide additional sources that you can review.
\nA Different View of the American West: https:\/\/artsci.washington.edu\/news\/1999-10\/different-view-american-west
\nRethinking History: American West: https:\/\/www.universityofcalifornia.edu\/news\/rethinking-history-american-west
\nHistory American West – Get much-needed rewrite: https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/history-american-west-gets-much-needed-rewrite-180960149\/
\nDeveloping the American West: https:\/\/youtu.be\/wmuMbOcL-mo
\nBurden Western History: http:\/\/prospect.org\/article\/burden-western-history
\nProject MUSE: The American West Reprised, Revised, and Revived – http:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/29166
\nAre you a movie buff? Consider renting an old Western, pay close attention to how “Cowboys and Indians” are portrayed, and compare it to a more recent movie that portrays the frontier. If you use one of these programs, make sure you identify it in your in-text citations and your references. Review the Writing Resources Tab for guides.
\nUtilize at least one of the linked sources to support your discussion.
\nIdentify and incorporate at least one additional outside source to support your discussion. In addition to the textbook, you may use any material outside of the textbook that is recommended in the Additional Reading section at the end of each chapter. You are also encouraged to do your own research and identify relevant sources. Please keep in mind that WIKIPEDIA is not an acceptable reference.
\nPREPARE AND SUBMIT:
\nWrite a well-organized essay, a minimum of 700 words (but not limited to), including supporting details from the documents\/textbook\/other sources in which you analyze and discuss the material that has been assigned by addressing the following question:<\/p>\n
Discuss the reality and myths that have been presented when relating the history of the American Frontier and its development.
\nReminders
\nUse Microsoft WORD to write the essays. The acceptable submission file types are .doc, .docx, and .rtf.
\nPrepare the assignment as a Word Document, double-spaced, and using a standard font of 12 points.
\nParagraphs in an essay are not numbered. Any questions that are associated with an assigned reading are there to serve as a guide for your discussion.
\nYour discussion should incorporate all of the information from the documents and or textbook, and outside sources as one essay.
\nStudents are required to research and incorporate into their discussions additional sources that relate to the content. Recommendations can be found at the end of the textbook chapter in Additional Reading.
\nAll statements must be supported, and all sources must be identified and cited, and included in your reference list. This also applies to the textbook. Failure to do so constitutes Plagiarism, and the college has strict policies and penalties for failure to comply. Under the Resources, you will find links to sites that review how to format a paper or essay. I recommend that students use APA or Chicago Style to format their essays. Students should ask their instructor which format style they prefer you to use.
\nProofread your work. Make sure that you have looked for all of the spelling and grammatical errors and corrected them, and that you have organized your work into coherent paragraphs.
\nSubmit it in the “First Required Writing Assignment (Submit Here) ” link as an ATTACHMENT. Any work that is submitted directly into the box will be graded as a 0.
\nPoint Value: 100<\/p>\n
Grading Criteria:<\/p>\n
Analysis and discussion (60%)
\nSupport for discussion (30%)
\nOrganization (10%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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