Progressive Historians :: American America History

Progressive HistoriansOne must decide the sum of progressive historiography. It can mean either the history written by progressive historians, or it can mean history written by historians of the Progressive era of American history and shortly after. The focus that was chosen for this paper is more in keeping with the latter interpretation, if for no new(prenominal) reason than it provides a useful compare-and-contrast control literature. The caveat is this the focus of this extend is on the predominant query of the historiographical terminus was the war a renewing or a war for independence? One could choose many other questions to argue, questions that historians nonplus for years disputed about the revolution, but at that place are a number of reasons why this report was chosen for this peculiar(prenominal) assignment the two best follow. First, it is an old and time-honored question that professors and instructors have posed to their students for years of pre-Civil War hi storiographical questions, it is perhaps second only in fashion during the last twenty to twenty-five years to the Jefferson-Hemmings paternity controversy. Second, the revolution-or-independence question is one of those which must be answered through interpretation. A case cannot be made that is so utterly conclusive as to exclude every others it is that very fact that makes history at once so queer and so fascinating. What better way could there be to look at the writings of a specific school of historians? Therefore, in the pursuit of private truth, we must proceed... Perhaps the most famous of all progressive historians is Frederick capital of Mississippi Turner. His most famous personal line of credit is not devoted strictly to the American Revolution, but instead to the transactions of the American frontier. In a sentence, his argument is that the frontier was the chief determinant in American history. This is not to theorise that Turner did not write about the war he di d, in his seminal work, The Frontier in American History, there are discussions of the frontiers effect on the coming of the revolution. It is worth noting, before exploring Turners arguments, that the frontier in this spot was only about one hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. Of course, as the period under scrutiny approaches the war chronologically, the frontier moves away from the ocean. But it is beta to remember that Turner defines the Jamestown of Captain John Smith in 1607 as the frontier in its initial stage.