Inspired, energetic, innovative, impulsive, original…America
In today's WSJ Opinion Journal Daniel Henninger recalls Frederick Turner's thesis on the role of the American frontier experience on her 20th century world ascendancy.
"From the conditions of frontier life," Turner believed, "came [American] intellectual traits of profound importance . . . coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy, that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil." These, he said, are "the traits of the frontier."
Calculated risk and a headlong pursuit of grand possibilities made America great. It would be tragic if she went the way of "those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat."
In today's WSJ Opinion Journal Daniel Henninger recalls Frederick Turner's thesis on the role of the American frontier experience on her 20th century world ascendancy."From the conditions of frontier life," Turner believed, "came [American] intellectual traits of profound importance . . . coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy, that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil." These, he said, are "the traits of the frontier."
Calculated risk and a headlong pursuit of grand possibilities made America great. It would be tragic if she went the way of "those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat."
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