The change in the history of the western united states and how the views of turner and Limerick reflect the continuity of western historyThe views of turner and limerick have greatly impacted the study of American west history especially the Limerick who has the second paradigm with emphasizes of four themes within the field of the western history including conquest, convergence, complexity and continuity. Tuner’s personal experiences due to growing up in a frontier region of Wisconsin shaped his thoughts and left a lasting impression. Tuner’s paradigms try to explain the expansion and development. These paradigms include the significance of the frontier for the history of America, the post-frontier anxiety and American exeptionalism. The American exceptionalism has the belief that the America has the model for liberty and freedom. Turner argues that an American identity that is unique was created where conditions that were wild gave to American national vitality. This was through interaction with the untamed wilderness environment which forced the settlers to develop unique institutions to survive. This process led to the development of particular American type that was mostly characterized by pragmatism, individualism and egalitarianism. In the description of the frontier, Turner tried to avoid some monolithic definitions and chose to describe it as a process and a place.While there is a lot of a criticism of turners work in the last three decades, there are aspects of the paradigm that have been very useful till present day. First, Turner focuses on the role of the environment as well as geography in shaping of the Americans and their institutions. Most of what is referred to as environmental history in the present day has been written under the guise of western history. This is because Turner believed that the environment west of Mississippi river exerted an influence that was transformative influence on the immigrants hence turning the Europeans into Americans. Historians such as Frederic have used Tuners model extensively especially American west in developing and augmenting some of the basic thesis.Historians have perceived the history of America west as a process involving successive waves of frontiersmen who moved west so as to tame the wildness. Turner’s theory imposed a view that the significant history of the west ended with the frontier closure in 1890. Historians have found the approach insufficient in the explanation of western history. Limerick observed that Turner’s frontier was a process and not a place. Hence the thinking of the western history as a place and not as a process gives new perspectives and makes the developments in the west comprehensible.History is the study of continuity as well as change. This is the reason why there is persistence in the clash between the preservationists and developers in the west which demonstrates the continuity with the past. The rise of a conservation movement accrued along with the settlement of the frontier. Lack of sources or incomplete and contradicting sources make the tasks of the historians difficult. This is mainly in the local history such as the dates of building construction. Hence in a few cases, the research done can only establish the period of structure construction.When historians come to the end of their research and glitch it to the present, there are many temptations to speculate on the future is irresistible although it is dangerous. For example, forecasters predicted that the work week of the Americans would decrease hence allow more leisure. Recent studies indicate that the Americans normally work longer each week than in the past. Women have also entered the work force either by economic necessity or personal choice. This has resulted in short, but frequent family outingsBy 1980’s, some of the western historians proclaimed the birth of new western history making a splash with an exhibition launch in 1989 that aimed to revise interruptions of the frontier as well as the role of the west in the history of America. The new western history tries to explore the mess that is left behind in terms of the natural environment in the western culture, as well as the social and political relations in the west. The main goal is to debunk western myths as well as the myths that that underlay the old western history by creating a new history that was clear-eyed, demythologized as well as critical.The west emerges as a place that is shaped by a power relation that is asymmetrical, a place that is undergoing processes that are supposed to be viewed in terms of invasion, conflict and conquest instead of frontier terms. These processes engross the convergence of people who are diverse and their encounters with each other and the natural environment. The agency of the people who are usually seen as victims is also involved. This shows that the western history needs to study the relationships, as well as their change over time. It should also view the divergent, multifaceted experiences as the fraction of a common history.
Works Cited
Billington, Monroe Lee, and Roger D. Hardaway. African Americans on the western frontier. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1998. Print.
Grey, Zane. Woman of the frontier: a western story. Unity, Me.: Five Star, 1998. Print.
Young, Robert J. C. 2003. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Limerick, Patricia Nelson, Andrew Cowell, and Sharon K. Collinge, eds. 2009. Remedies for a New West: Healing Landscapes, Histories, and Cultures. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
