Pulitzer Prize History Winner

The Significance of Sections in American History

by Frederick Jackson Turner

Summary

This collection gathers Turner's essays arguing that regional sections, as much as the frontier, shaped the nation's politics and conflicts. He maps how economic geography and sectional interests pulled the country in competing directions across the nineteenth century. The volume extends his famous frontier thesis into a broader claim about how distinct regions defined American development.

Historical Context & Significance

Turner had died in 1932, and the book won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1933, awarded after the death of the historian best known for his frontier thesis.