| Book by historian Frederick Jackson Turner, selected as the Modern Library's 14th best non-fiction book. Turner's thesis of westward expansion, simply stated, is that America is or was essentially a frontier country and the frontier acted as a relief valve for people experiencing political and social presssures. Further, he postulates that political and social innovations such as referendums and enfranchisement of women devloped on the frontier and travelled eastward. Essentially, he's saying that all the free-thinkers and other assorted misfits bugged out and went west, and created a society that was responsible for a lot of cool ideas. Taken loosely, his thesis applies to the Internet as well, and if it holds it means we'll see social and political changes developed on the technological frontier spreading out into the physical world. |
