| Popis: |
One of the clearest statements of the relationship between the frontier and settlement, as originated by Turner and developed by his disciples, is found in the writings of Ray A. Billington. The 1960 edition of his best known work, Westward Expansion, A History of the American Frontier, opens with a chapter entitled “The Frontier Hypothesis.” One element of this familiar postulate involves the concept of the settlement of America through the westward expansion of the frontier, in which the frontier is thought of “as a series of contiguous westward migrating zones.” First into the area came the fur traders; next to arrive were the cattlemen; where conditions permitted, a third zone, consisting of miners, appeared; then came the “pioneer farmers,” followed by a fifth zone of “equipped farmers” who purchased the lands of the pioneers and whose demands called into being the final zone, the “urban frontier.” The transitional process to the ultimate urban frontier was simple, according to the TurnerBillington concept Opportunities provided by “equipped farmers” brought specialists— “millers, merchants, grain dealers, slaughterers, distillers, speculators, schoolmasters, dancing teachers, lawyers and editors”— to the frontier. These specialists “chose their homesites at strategically located points in the center of agricultural communities... As more and more concentrated there, a hamlet, then a village, then a town, gradually took shape.” Towns, according to Billington, seemed to develop slowly by accretion, like coral reefs. The selection of a townsite (as well as urban growth) appears to be a process of the final state of settlement, an activity of the “urban frontier.” A contrary view is expressed by Richard C. Wade, a historian of a younger generation, specializing in urban themes at the University of Chicago. His book, The Urban Frontier 17901830, begins as follows |
