The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethical and Ecological Interpretation (Creating the North American Landscape) [Paperback]

Professor Terry G. Jordan (Author), Professor Matti E. Kaups (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The most original contribution to American cultural geography in many years." -- John C. Hudson, Journal of Historical Geography

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (March 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801843758
• ISBN-13: 978-0801843754
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,509,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fenno-Indric Influence on American Frontier Culture, December 3, 2004

By 

Glenn R. Urbanas (Richmond Hill, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethical and Ecological Interpretation (Creating the North American Landscape) (Paperback)

What the initial reviewer fails to mention is the authors' fascinating premise -- that the predominant mid-Atlantic (read Pennsylvania) thrust of frontier expansion has at its roots the mingled culture of the southern Lenape Indians (aka Delaware) and the Savo-Karelian forest Finns who were encouraged to settle in the remote regions of western Sweden on the Norwegian border & who were no longer wanted with the rise of iron production making the Finns ideal candidates for New World colonisation. Their prior experience trading with the alien Rus'ian and Lapp peoples, their adaptation to forested frontier conditions including slash & burn agriculture, log building technology based on mastery of the felling ax, their early use & manufacture of the rifle as a hunting tool, their unconcern for environmental destruction, their readiness to incorporate useful new plant, animal, & survival knowlege & skills from other peoples, and their remarkable hardiness made them the core culture in the Philadelphia region upon which the bulk of subsequent immigrant populations, especially Celtic (Scots-Irish), Swiss, & German, were to learn the skills & knowlege necessary to move westward beyond the Alleghenies & southwestward along the Great Valley into Virginia, the Carolinas, & Georgia. The authors make a strong case for their hypothesis & compare it to earlier work by others. A fine & fascinating study of the roots of frontier American culture. The only weakness in my opinion is its insufficient analysis of the native American contribution to early mid-Atlantic colonial culture. Especially helpful would have been more information on log notching variations throughout the frontier on the order of the unparalleled study by Sigurd Erixon in 'Folk Liv' 1938 & on Finnish/Swedish vs. German rifle technology in the colonial period. Apart from this perhaps minor failing it constitutes a well-reasoned (if not fully substantiated) argument which will doubtless produce controversy & consternation (& perhaps even scorn) among cultural anthropologists specializing in American colonial history -- especially amongst those possessing Celtic and/or Germannic ancestry!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ethnic Origins of America's Frontier Culture, March 24, 2000

By 

Brian O'Malley (Atlantic Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethical and Ecological Interpretation (Creating the North American Landscape) (Paperback)

Terry G. Jordan and Matti Kaups studied America's frontier culture to discern its ethnic heritage. Most historians of the American frontier locate its origin in the vicinity of the Delaware Valley. In this book, Jordan and Kaups trace America's frontier culture to a surprising corner of Europe's "hard scrabble periphery." In the 1700s, about a century before Davy Crockett, residents of this corner of Europe depicted their frontiersmen fighting bears!

Jordan and Kaups consider evidence from literature, anthropology and architecture. The authors discussed the equipment carried by frontier hunters, the primitive and ecologically exahustive farming and homesteading techniques, the building of log cabins and even the notches in fence rails to trace the possible origin of American frontier culture.

Anyone interested in frontier or colonial history should consult this work, as should anyone studying the history of ethnic diversity and racism in North America. This book is a particularly good supplement to David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, which considers localized seedbeds for four regional cultures. The authors repeatedly acknowledge the Indian contribution to the frontiersman's capability. The debt to Native America is clear. Sadly, the authors illuminate few particulars in this regard.

The scholarship is meticulous, the investigation fastidiously detailed. The authors were determined to prove their case; they have done so in a style that is both interesting and convincing.