Consider the following questions:
1. Discuss the reform movements of the first half of the nineteenth century.
2. What exactly was the "romantic impulse" and what did it mean for American culture?
3. In what ways was the abolitionist movement similar to the other reform movements discussed in this chapter? How was it different?
4. What were some of the arguments of the anti-abolitionists? How did they present their case?
5. Discuss the influence of Manifest Destiny on Americans during the period, and how it shaped American policies.
6. How did the Westward migration change American society?
7. What caused the Mexican-American War? What were the domestic consequences of the American?
8. What factors (besides slavery) caused the deep divisions between the North and South during the 1850s?
9. What were the results, and subsequent effects, of the Compromise of 1850?
10. Compare and contrast the Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and James Polk.
11. There was arguably as much change in America in the years prior to the Civil War as during any other time period in America's history. Please discuss the social, cultural and economic changes in the decades leading up to the Civil War. What impact did this have on the concepts of Manifest Destiny, the Abolitionist movement and the growing sectional differences between the North and South.