Frontiers—Old, New, and Final

ABSTRACT

The enduring idea of the frontier brings with it thoughts of adventure, discovery and romance, but also of hardship, solitude, and the struggle against the forces of nature. Similarly, the idea that there is a final frontier out there, just waiting to be explored and conquered, is as persistent as the idea of endless new frontiers, all waiting to be explored. The search for new frontiers arises out of humankind’s longing to discover, explore and conquer the great unknown, whether in deepest darkest space, ocean, or recesses of the mind. This article begins with a conceptual history of frontier and goes on to explain why it continues to resonate more than eight centuries after the term was first coined.

KEYWORDS:

• frontiers
• innovation
• invention
• conquest

Notes

1. Turner, Frontier in American History, 3. The meeting of civilization and savagery is explored at length in Bowden, Empire of Civilization.

2. Ridge, “Life of an Idea,” 3.

3. Berend, “Medievalists and the Notion of the Frontier,” 71.

4. Limerick, Legacy of Conquest, 26.

5. Limerick, “Adventures of the Frontier,” 75.

6. Limerick, Legacy of Conquest, 25.

7. See Pechenick, Danforth, and Dodds, “Characterizing the Google Books Corpus”; Younes and Reips, “Guideline.”

8. Ball, Farr, and Hanson, “Editors’ Introduction,” 4.

9. Mazzeo, “Some Interpretations of the History of Ideas,” 393.

10. Klein, “Reclaiming the ‘F’ Word,” 183.

11. Mood, “Notes on the History of the Word,” 78.

12. Berend, “Medievalists and the Notion of the Frontier,” 66.

13. The Lay of the Cid, 14, 22, and 24.

14. Febvre, “Frontière,” 209–10.

15. Ibid., 213.

16. Nys, “Development and Formation of International Law,” 9.

17. Febvre, “Frontière,” 211–12.

18. Ibid., 214.

19. Ibid., 217.

20. “Addenda, Edward VI,” 407; Acts of the Privy Council, 375.

21. Cockeram, English Dictionarie of 1623, 77.

22. Camden, Britannia, 3.

23. Bailey, Dictionarium Britannicum.

24. Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, 840.

25. Webster, Compendious Dictionary, 125.

26. Webster, American Dictionary, 1:798.

27. Murray, New English Dictionary, 565–66.

28. Ridge, “Life of an Idea,” 13. See also Juricek, “American Usage of the Word.”

29. Horwill, Dictionary of Modern American Usage, 142.

30. Turner, Frontier in American History, 3.

31. Mood, “Notes on the History of the Word,” 82.

32. Mood, “Concept of the Frontier,” 25.

33. Turner, Frontier in American History, 3–4.

34. Alexander, Moving Frontiers, 28.

35. Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth, 2:4–5.

36. Wyman and Kroeber, eds., Frontier in Perspective.

37. Ridge, “Life of an Idea,” 12.

38. Ibid., 13.

39. Turner, Frontier in American History, 9, 38.

40. Lewis, “Closing of the Medieval Frontier,” 475.

41. See, for example, Bartlett and MacKay, eds., Medieval Frontier Societies; Power,The Norman Frontier; Berend, “Medievalists and the Notion of the Frontier;” and Abulafia and Berend, eds., Medieval Frontiers.

42. Berend, “Medievalists and the Notion of the Frontier,” 67–68.

43. Febvre, “Frontière,” 217.

44. Webb, Great Frontier, 284.

45. See Kopf et. al. eds., Deep-Sea and Sub-Seafloor Frontier.

46. Roosevelt to Dr. Vannevar Bush, November 17, 1944, in Bush, Science, the Endless Frontier, 3–4.

47. Bush, Science, the Endless Frontier, 11, 12.

48. Ibid., 74, 79.

49. Kennedy, “Address to the 1960 Democratic National Convention.”

50. Webb, Great Frontier, 283.

51. Ibid., 284.

52. E.g., Kaplan, “Lawless Frontier.”

53. Fox, “Facebook and Twitter.”

54. Anderson, “European Frontiers,” 1–10; Anderson, Frontiers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brett Bowden

Brett Bowden is Professor of History and Politics at Western Sydney University, Australia. His publications include The Empire of Civilization, Civilization and War, The Strange Persistence of Universal History in Political Thought, Direct Hit: The Bombing of Darwin Post Office, and the 4-volume collection Civilization: Critical Concepts. He is the recipient of the Norbert Elias Prize, the APSA Crisp Prize, and the GW Symes Award.