一个具有重大意义的主题——从特纳的“边疆假说”谈起

A THEME OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE

如果从“西进运动”人手,探索西部得以迅速开发的原因,及其在美国历史上的意义,我们可以得出这样一个结论:农民愈自由,受农权制残余的压迫愈少,他们的土地整个说来就愈有保障,而农民的分化就愈厉害,农场企业主阶级的形成就愈迅速,资本主义发展的速度也就愈快。因为美国的西部边疆作为辽阔的处女地,在那里没有任何封建残余的压迫和束缚,移民们得以按纯粹资本主义的方式去开发和利用其土地,从而建立起一种独具特色的经济模式,或曰:“西部开发模式”。一此处为何要从“西进运动”入手。

F.J. Turner’s "Frontier Hypothesist" contains a theme of great significance, that is, the effect of the opening up of the West on U.S. development. While the theme is tenable, it is bogged down in the quagmire of "geographic environmental determinism". To begin with the study of the Westward Movement is a right approach to discovering the causes of the West’s rapid development and its significance in U.S. history.