On this date in 1909, Professor Benjamin Shambaugh, a professor at the University of Iowa, delivered a convocation speech at the University of North Dakota titled "The History of the West."
According to The Student, UND's student newspaper, Shambaugh defined the West "not as a geographical area but as a state of mind."
The Student reported that Shambaugh said, “The West is where a man is; the East is where his father came from. Columbus was the first great westerner. The explorers, the colonists, and the pioneers who followed him were all broad-minded men with a vision. Each was a true westerner."
Shambaugh explained that in the early days of America, the frontier was very close to the Atlantic coast. However, after the Revolution, it gradually pushed farther westward, and this movement continued until the entire continent was settled.
Professor Shambaugh viewed the American story as a pioneer epic, stating that “The ancestors of our American pioneers were Aryans, and those of the great central West were mainly Anglo-Saxons.”
The Student also reported him saying, “Though the farthest limits of the continent have been reached and all of the lands occupied, the West is not all conquered. The West is a state of mind; the frontier is a condition.”
In Shambaugh's view, the American West was not a physical place but a state of continuous conquest, where new challenges were always "to be met and grappled with."
His ideology reflected the thinking of his time, aligning with Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis and prefiguring Henry Luce's "American Century," a 1941 essay in Life magazine that promoted internationalism.
Professor Shambaugh holds an esteemed reputation at the University of Iowa. His home is a revered spot on campus, and an auditorium is named in his honor. As the founding chair of its Department of Political Science, he significantly raised the profile of the State Historical Society of Iowa, which he managed as its superintendent.
While Shambaugh’s ideas would be considered controversial today, his concept of perpetual conquest has played a key role in shaping American identity.
Dakota Datebook by Andrew Alexis Varvel
References:
- “THE WEST IS NOT A GEOGRAPHICAL AREA”, The Student (Grand Forks), 25 November 1909, page 1, column 3.
- https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/empire/text1/turner.pdf
- https://public.websites.umich.edu/~mlassite/discussions261/luce.pdf
- https://facilities.uiowa.edu/named-building/shambaugh-house
- https://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/bdi/DetailsPage.aspx?id=334
