![]() | The Great Frontier: Freedom and Hierarchy in Modern Times Subjects: Social History -- Addresses essays lectures; Frontier and Pioneer Life -- United States -- Addresses essays lectures; Emigration and Immigration -- History -- Addresses essays lectures; Social Classes -- Addresses essays lectures; Labor Supply --; A leading American historian examines the character of the frontiers of European expansion throughout the modern age, questioning a notion of frontier freedom popular since Turner. William McNeill argues that social hierarchy characterized the frontier more often than pioneer equality. As Europeans traveled to various lands, bringing new diseases to vulnerable natives, formerly isolated populations died in great numbers, creating an "open" frontier where labor was scarce. European efforts to develop frontier areas involved either a radical leveling of the hierarchies common in Europe itself or, alternatively, their sharp reinforcement by resort to slavery, serfdom, peonage, and indentured labor. |
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