Between 1840-1921 there was a massive influx of immigrants, primarily from Europe, to the rapidly-expanding United States. Key to the expansion of the western 'frontier' following the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) was the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Homestead Act of 1862, which enabled pioneers to get free land of up to 160 acres (a 'homestead') if they marked it off, settled on it and occupied it for five years.

What factors helped this wave of immigrants create a new national identity? How were former Finns, Germans, Irishmen, Poles, etc., eventually 'transformed' from Finnish-Americans, German-Americans, etc., into 'Americans'? What might be thought of as identifying characteristics of an American?

One hypothesis is in the "Frontier Theory" of the historian Frederick Jackson Turner. In an 1893 address to the American Historical Association, Turner outlined what he termed the "frontier theory" of American history. Turner said that the traditional "frontier" of westward expansion across the American continent, 'and with it the first period of American history', had ended. Turner felt that the 'frontier' had helped define the following "characteristics" of the American people. He did not claim these as 'unique' to Americans, but rather as identifying characteristics which resulted from the influence of the frontier experience.

[It was] ... to the frontier that the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and acquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom — these are traits of the frontier, or traits called out elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier.

Among the 'characteristics' cited by Turner are the following:

• Individualism
• Self-reliance, persistance and a strong sense of initiative
• Openness to new experience
• Innovativeness, a constant 'inquisitiveness' and search for original solutions
• Mobility, both physical and social
• Reflexive voluntarism and the joining of voluntary organizations
• Religiosity (personal & cultural), and the influence of multiple 'rival' religious sects
• Localization and 'portability' of civic & governmental institutions
• Suspicion/distrust of 'authority'
• Faith in 'technology'; new machines and devices often seen as 'salvation'
• Belief in the purity and values of rural areas (cf. urban areas)
• Trust in quick-working relationships, personal openness, sincerity
• Creation of a composite nationality rooted in material prosperity
• Sense of effectiveness, a 'can do' mentality, an optimistic outlook
• National pride in accomplishment, 'city on the hill' legacy
  (cf. Alexis de Tocqueville's "American exceptionalism," that the United States is a nation unlike any other with a special mission to build a 'city upon a hill' that will serve mankind as liberty's beacon)

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The 'Core American Values' of Sociologists Robin Williams and James Henslin

Nearly 70 years after Frederick Jackson Turner, the sociologist Robin M. Williams, Jr. (1914-2006) posed in 1965* twelve 'core values' held by Americans, to which the sociologist James M. Henslin added three more in 1975. These 'core values' may in part be seen as direct results of Turner's 'characteristics,' and are a useful insight into American instincts.

As posed by Williams and Henslin, and elaborated by sociologist Henry Schissler, these 'core values' are:

1. Individualism: Americans have traditionally prized success that comes from individual effort and initiative. They cherish the ideal that an individual can rise from the bottom of society to its very top. If someone fails to "get ahead," Americans generally find fault with that individual, rather than with the social system for placing roadblocks in his or her path. Americans should persistently strive for success.
2. Achievement and Success: Americans place a high value on personal achievement, especially on outdoing others with whom they may be 'competing'. This value includes getting ahead at work and school, and attaining wealth, power, and prestige.
3. Activity and Work: Americans expect people to work hard and to be busily engaged in some activity even when not at work. There is a tendency to work even 'for the sake of working.'
4. Efficiency and Practicality Americans award high marks for getting things done efficiently. Even in everyday life, Americans consider it important to do things quickly, and they constantly seek ways to increase efficiency.
5. Science and Technology: Americans have a passion for applied science, for using science to control nature — taming rivers, harnessing the wind and the oceans, or building domed athletic stadiums to neutralize the limitations of bad weather, for example — and to develop new technologies.
6. Progress: Americans expect rapid technological change. They believe that they should constantly build "more and better" gadgets that will help them move toward that vague goal called "progress."
7. Material Comfort: Americans expect a high level of material comfort. This comfort includes not only good nutrition, medical care, and housing, but also newer-model cars, technological devices and recreational playthings.
8. Humanitarianism: Americans emphasize helpfulness, personal kindness, aid in mass disasters, and organized philanthropy.
9. Personal Freedom: This core value pervades U.S. life. It underscored the American Revolution, and Americans continue to pride themselves on their personal freedom.
10. Democracy: By 'democracy' Americans refer to majority rule, to the right of everyone to express an opinion, and to the American form of representative government.
11. Equality: It is impossible to understand Americans without being aware of the central role that the value of equality plays in their lives. Equality of opportunity has significantly influenced U.S. history and continues to mark relations between groups that make up U.S. society.
12. Racism and Group Superiority: Although may seem to contradict the notions of freedom, democracy, and equality, at any given point in their history Americans have always valued some groups more than others. The 18th and 19th-century treatment of Native Americans and African-Americans are the most notorious examples, but the changing status of different immigration groups throughout American history provides numerous other examples, as do gender, sexual-preference, linguistic and other 'identities' nowadays (see Dialect and Identity in American English [US-1] for the relationship of social status distinctions with how a group's way of speaking is 'valued' by others).

    Early on, 'WASP' descendents were valued more highly than Roman Catholic Irish immigrants; German-Americans were valued more highly than Italian-Americans (although the Germans were often looked upon disfavorably by their English predecessors); more recently it has been the turn of the 'newest' immigrants, including Hispanics, to often be disparaged. In time all groups assimilate into the mainstream, although certain groups may still be thought of as having greater or lesser social standing or cultural value (Boston 'Brahmins' vs Applachian 'hillbillies' being extreme examples of this).
    
    

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13. Education: Americans are expected to go as far in school as their abilities and finances allow. Over the years, the definition of an "adequate" education has changed, and today a college education is considered an appropriate goal for most Americans. Those who have an opportunity for higher education and do not take it are sometimes viewed as doing something "wrong" — not merely as making a bad choice, but as somehow being involved in an immoral act.
14. Religiosity: There is a feeling that "every true American ought to be religious." This does not mean that everyone is expected to join a church, synagogue, or mosque, but that everyone ought to acknowledge a belief in a Supreme Being and follow some set of matching precepts. This value is so pervasive that Americans stamp "In God We Trust" on their money and declare in their national pledge of allegiance that they are "one nation under God" (while at the same time proclaiming a separation of church and state).
15. Romantic Love: Americans feel that the only proper basis for marriage is romantic love. Songs, literature, mass media, and "folk beliefs" all stress this value. They especially love the theme that "love conquers all."

    * While Williams first outlined these core values in 1965 (see Schissler [PDF], among others) they were continuously updated, with the result that sources (see Macionis, for example) may give different years/numbers for the 'values.'

Map of the 1835-1855 period, showing 'frontier' territories in need of population