At the Chicago Exhibition in 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner set forth his thesis that the frontier, an ever changing boundary that defines civilization containing the "Wild West", made America unique. The Turner thesis has been contested throughout much of the 20th century, and, most recently, New Western historians have claimed that the concept constructs racial and gender barriers that must be reconsidered. The five works in this volume include Turner's 1893 speech and present day essays that examine how the frontier informs questions of American identity.