Question 1: What role did sports play in the redefinition of masculine identities? How did sports reflect the racial and economic divisions of the era?
Question 2: What new educational opportunities arose for young Americans in the nineteenth century?
Question 3: How did educational opportunities change the experiences and expectations of minorities and women?
Question 4: How did America's expanding consumer culture change women's lives?
Question 5: What political reform goals did women pursue in this era? In your view, which of these projects was most beneficial, and to whom?
Question 6: Some historians argue that American culture began to secularize in the era. To what extent do you agree or disagree, and why?
Question 7: What are some ways in which social Darwinism, or the idea of survival of the fittest, shape American thought in this era?
Question 8: What were some of the changes in women's lives and public activities during these decades?