Chp 11

1.Was technology truly a democratizing force in the mid-nineteenth century?

2. Were all of the changes affecting daily life in the mid-nineteenth century truly for the better?

3. What were the hallmarks and significance of mass entertainment in the mid-nineteenth century?

4. What fueled the American Renaissance in literature and art?

Chp 12

5. What made the South distinctive from the North?

6. How did slavery shape the social and class dynamics of the South, even for those without slaves?

7. What was the experience of slavery for slaves?

8. What is the best way to understand the creation of a slave culture?

Chp 13

I. What were the myths and realities about immigration and the immigrant experience in mid-nineteenth-century America?

J. What shaped U.S. settlement of the West in the mid-nineteenth century?

K. How did national politics influence debates and actions regarding westward expansion?

L. What were the short- and long-term implications of the U.S. war with Mexico?

Chp 14

M. Why was the Compromise of 1850 ultimately unsuccessful in resolving sectional divisions?

N. What ultimately fueled the collapse of the second party system?

O. What drove the North and South further apart in the mid-1850s?

P. Was secession (and civil war) inevitable?