The idea of the frontier plays a prominent role in American history. While most people think of the frontier as simply a geographic concept referring to the availability of unsettled land in the western United States, the frontier also has come to symbolize the American spirit and its boundless potential. The forces of the industrial revolution, new discoveries in science, and innovations in the business field, transformed the U.S. at the end of the nineteenth century. Jews, like other new immigrants, brought new ideas and new ways of doing things to America. These immigrants and their children worked hard to achieve success in the rapidly expanding American economy. Many of these people influenced the development of the modern American way of life.