Rugged individualism frontier culture in america was first presented as an important historical event at a meeting of the world congress of historians held in chicago in the summer of 1893.
Rugged individualism frontier.
Historically frontier locations had distinctive demographics and greater individualism.
To some rugged individualism sounds like an anachronism from a much earlier time.
They settled in villages and towns.
Machine readable bibliographic record marc ris bibtex.
And for some the idea of rugged individualism is so attached to the frontier heroes that it is difficult to carry it forward to a time when arguably the country has evolved to become less independent and more interdependent.
It helps that it now has a name.
We track the frontier throughout the 1790 1890 period and construct a county level measure of total frontier expe rience tfe.
The principle of rugged individualism is one of the foundational myths of american culture.
This is an oddity but for a very long time the term rugged individualism seems not to have existed.
The presence of a westward moving frontier of settlement shaped early u s.
Tigate the frontier thesis and identify its long run implications for culture and politics.
What is rugged individualism.
We provide evidence on the roots of frontier culture identifying both selective migration and a causal effect of frontier exposure on individualism.
Nisms fostering rugged individualism on the frontier e g selective migration prospects for upward mobility were of limited historical relevance for blacks especially in the antebellum period.
Supposedly it was rugged individualism that pushed the frontier ever westward and made the continent safe for ruggedly individualistic entrepreneurs to build the most spectacular economy the world has ever seen.
Third tfe has simi.
People formed wagon trains to travel together in greater safety.
In 1893 the his torian frederick jackson turner famously argued that the american frontier fostered individualism we investigate the frontier thesis and identify its long run implications for culture and politics.
Frederick jackson turner should have coined it in his 1893 essay on the frontier but he didn t.
Overall our findings shed new light on the frontier s persistent legacy of rugged individualism.
In attempting to adjust the country to its new expansionless future statesmen have frequently called upon the frontier hypothesis to justify everything from rugged individualism to the welfare state and from isolationism to world domination.
Second preferences over policies tangential to frontier culture exhibit little relation to tfe.
