Summary

In “The Frontier Heritage”, Edward N. Kearny argues that the concept of frontier is still important for Americans today because it has shaped many of the American national values. The idea of the frontier developed with the first American settlers in the 1600s and by 1890 all the American land had been settled.

According to the author, the American frontier represented unsettled places westward which were gradually settled by colonists. Because the frontier was usually a rough place to live, it provided Americans with examples of hard work and created the circumstances for competitiveness. At the frontier, people turned forests into cities and held races to claim land.

Daily life at the frontier was not always dramatic and adventurous, but it helped the settlers develop values like individualism, self-reliance, and equality...