It is a commonplace to observe that nowadays the pace of change is exceedingly rapid. Sometimes students make the unwarranted inference that in the past not much change took place at all. You can help them understand that change is a constant in human affairs with a lecture reviewing the elements of the transportation revolution. The story of transportation can be dramatic when emphasis is placed on the effort to solve the problems of each mode--road, river, canal, railroad--rather than merely relating the events that took place. The achievement of the Erie Canal, the drama of building it, the celebration attending its inauguration merit special consideration. See Carol Sheriff, The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862 (1996), and Ronald E. Shaw, Canals for a Nation: The Canal Era in the United States, 1790-1860 (1990). For a closer look at skilled craftsmen and toilers with pick and shovel, consult Peter Way, Common Labour: Workers and the Digging of North American Canals, 1780-1860 (1993). The story of the railroads can be broken off prior to the building of the first transcontinental, then resumed later in the term. See especially George Rogers Taylor, The Transportation Revolution, 1815-1860 (1951), and consult the other valuable sources cited at the end of Chapter 9 in the text.

Another approach to change will emphasize social relations. In this instance, rather than trace change over time, the lecturer can sharply contrast two different time periods. The concepts of social hierarchy, obligation, deference, and responsibility in the seventeenth century were far more rigid than in the period discussed in Chapter 9. Provide a sketch of a family of the middling sort in Massachusetts late in the seventeenth century, the roles of family members, their obligations to religious and civil authorities, to equals, and to subordinates. Provide a similar sketch for a family of the middling sort in 1840. Suggest some explanations for the change over 150 years: the Enlightenment, republicanism, relatively easy access to land, the market revolution. Or leave the lecture unfinished: ask students to suggest reasons for such great changes and complete the lecture in a later class, using their comments. See Louis B. Wright, The Cultural Life of the American Colonies (1957), and in particular Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1783 (1970). Cremin's view of education is much wider than mere schooling, and he provides a fine bibliographical essay. For the nineteenth century, see Jack Larkin, The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840 (1988).

One of the tragedies in the history of the United States is the story of the Trail of Tears. Students will find a full account valuable in understanding U.S. Indian policy, and they can hardly remain unaffected by the story's drama. The Cherokees had done what was necessary to be "civilized." They were ahead of many Americans in their education and lifestyle. But they were in the way. See Grant Foreman, Indian Removal (revised edition; 1953); Theda Perdue, "The Trail of Tears: Removal of the Southern Indians," in The American Indian Experience: A Profile, edited by Philip Weeks (1988); and other titles under "Indians" in the bibliography at the end of Chapter 9.

Two vignettes will provide students with a look at lesser-known but significant aspects of American life. What was life like in the Indian Territory for the migrants from the very different landscape of Georgia and Alabama? See Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance (1941), and Grant Foreman, The Five Civilized Tribes (1934) and Advancing the Frontier (1933). For fuller treatment of the Cherokees see Russell Thornton, The Cherokees: A Population History (1990), and John Ehle, The Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (1989).

A second vignette will describe life among the mountain men. Danger and loneliness are major elements in the story, but comparisons are also to be made with more settled lives with respect to such matters as the profit motive and race relations. See Bernard DeVoto, Across the Wide Missouri (1947), for an excellent account. See also Robert G. Cleland, This Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest (1950), and Dale L. Morgan, Jedidiah Smith and the Opening of the West (1953).