Turner, Bolton, and Webb: Three Historians of the American Frontier

by Wilbur R. Jacobs, John Walton Caughey, Joe Bertram Frantz

BRINGS TOGETHER ILLUMINATING PORTRAIT-STUDIES OF THE THREE GREAT SCHOLARS WHO MOST SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCED CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTS OF AMERICAN FRONTIER HISTORY

127 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

About the author

Wilbur R. Jacobs (June 30, 1918 – June 15, 1998) was an American historian, with a special interest in Native American, Western, and Environmental history.

Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1918, Jacobs moved west at a young age and settled in the Los Angeles area. He started college at Pasadena City College, then earned his B.A. (1940) and M.A. (1942) in History at the University of California, Los Angeles. After military service during World War II, Jacobs started doctoral study at Johns Hopkins University, but decided to return to UCLA to pursue Western Frontier history under the direction of Lewis Knott Koontz. He finished his doctorate in 1947 and then taught Western Civilization at Stanford University for two years, before accepting a call to the History program at the University of California, Santa Barbara (known at that time as the University of California, Santa Barbara College). At the University of California, Santa Barbara, Jacobs served as a founding member of the History Department and also served as Department Chair from 1961-1964.