节选自弗雷德里克·杰克逊·特纳(Frederick Jackson Turner)在1893年哥伦比亚世界博览会(World’s columbia Exposition)期间撰写并发表的《美国历史上边疆的重要性》(The Significance of The Frontier in American History)。
美国边境与欧洲边境截然不同 穿过密集人口的设防边界线。美国边境最重要的一点是,它位于自由土地的边缘。在人口普查报告中,它被视为密度为每平方英里两个或两个以上的定居点的边界。这个术语是有弹性的,就我们的目的而言,不需要明确的定义。我们将考虑整个边疆带,包括印度国家和损坏地区的外缘。本文不试图详尽地讨论这个问题;其目的只是提请人们注意边境作为调查的沃土,并提出与此有关的一些问题。
在美洲殖民时期,我们必须观察欧洲人的生活是如何进入欧洲大陆的,以及美国是如何改变和发展这种生活并对欧洲作出反应的。我们的早期历史是研究欧洲细菌在美国环境下的发展。公立学校的学生过于关注日耳曼血统,而忽视了美国因素。边境是最迅速和有效的美国化的分界线。荒野征服了殖民者。它发现他在服装、工业、工具、旅行方式和思想方面都是欧洲人。它把他从火车上拖下来,放到了桦木独木舟上。它剥去文明的外衣,给他穿上狩猎的衬衫和鹿皮鞋。它把他关在切罗基人和易洛魁人的小木屋里,用印第安人的栅栏围着他。不久,他就去种印第安玉米,用一根锋利的棍子耕地,他喊出了战争的口号,并以传统的印第安人的方式剥下了头皮。 In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man. He must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome is not the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that is American. At first, the frontier was the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in a very real sense. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. As successive terminal moraines result from successive glaciations,3 so each frontier leaves its traces behind it, and when it becomes a settled area the region still partakes of the frontier characteristics. Thus the advance of the frontier has meant a steady movement away from the influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines. And to study this advance, the men who grew up under these conditions, and the political, economic, and social results of it, is to study the really American part of our history. . .
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