Turner never recanted his early belief that progressive western expansionism and the individualist character that resulted, shaped American political institutions for the betterment of the country and beyond. He foreshadowed each of these changes in earlier articles, ending “Significance of the Frontier in American History” by writing “…the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” (60). By the time of “The Problem of the West” publication in 1896, Turner was already theorizing the effects of sectionalism on democratic institutions, “It would not mean sectional disunion, as some have speculated, but it might mean a drastic assertion of national government and imperial expansion under a popular hero.”(75) His focus on sectionalism in American society post World War I represented his belief that European nations could disrupt the cycle of violence if they modeled their political institutions and ideology off of the United States, which for Frederick Jackson Turner meant the American character and culture spawned through westward
Turner never recanted his early belief that progressive western expansionism and the individualist character that resulted, shaped American political institutions for the betterment of the country and beyond. He foreshadowed each of these changes in earlier articles, ending “Significance of the Frontier in American History” by writing “…the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” (60). By the time of “The Problem of the West” publication in 1896, Turner was already theorizing the effects of sectionalism on democratic institutions, “It would not mean sectional disunion, as some have speculated, but it might mean a drastic assertion of national government and imperial expansion under a popular hero.”(75) His focus on sectionalism in American society post World War I represented his belief that European nations could disrupt the cycle of violence if they modeled their political institutions and ideology off of the United States, which for Frederick Jackson Turner meant the American character and culture spawned through westward