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Questions For Class Discussion

Questions For Class Discussion
Chapter 15: The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790 - 1860

  1. What particular qualities did Evangelical religion give to the early American culture? Why did so many of its energies move toward the reform of society? Were there elements of American religion that resisted the reform impulse?

  2. How important is a free public education to a republic? If it is important, why then was early education so poor? If it is not important, why did it begin? Do you agree that public education was "an insurance premium that the wealthy paid for stability and democracy," as the authors assert? Is it important to a republic to have compulsory public education?

  3. Were the cult of domesticity and the rise of the child-centered family signs of an improvement or a restriction on womens status and condition? Was the new family a progressive reflection of American democratic ideals, or a restriction on them?

  4. Why did America produce so many reform and utopian movements? What did they contribute to American culture?

  5. What made women such prominent leaders in the religious and reform movements? How did the womens rights movement compare with the other movements of the period? What obstacles did women reformers face? Why did women often have more difficulty working on their own behalf than they did advocating other causes?
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