Brinkley Textbook
(Pages 320-326)
1. How was the work of James Fennimore Cooper the culmination of an
effort to produce a truly American literature? What did his work
suggest about the nation and its people?
2. Why was Whitman called “the poet of American democracy?”
3. Who were the transcendentalists? What was their philosophy and how
did they express it in literature?
4. How did the transcendentalists attempt to apply their beliefs to the
problems of everyday life at Brook Farm? What was the result?
5. What other utopian schemes were put forth during this period? How did
they propose to reorder society to create a better way of life?
6. How did the utopian communities attempt to redefine the gender roles?
Which communities were most active in their effort and what did they
accomplish?
7. Who were the Mormons? What were their origins, what did they believe,
and why did they end up in Utah?
(Pages 326-334)
1. What gave rise to the crusade against drunkenness? What successes and
failures resulted from this movement’ efforts?
2. How did the efforts to produce a system of universal public education
reflect the spirit of the age?
3. How did the rise of feminism reflect not only the participation of
women in social crusades, but also a basic change in the nature of the
family?
4. How did feminists benefit from their association with other reform
movements, most notably the abolitionists and at the same time suffer
as a result?
(Pages 334-341)
1. What was the anti-slavery position of William Lloyd Garrison? How did
he transform abolitionism into a new and dramatically different
phenomenon?
2. What role did black abolitionists play in the movement? How did their
philosophy compare with that of Garrison?
3. Why did many Northern whites oppose abolition? How did they show this
opposition?
4. What divisions existed within the abolitionist movement itself?
5. How did abolitionists attempt to arouse widespread public anger over
slavery through the use of propaganda? What was the most significant
work to emerge from this effort? Why did it have such an impact?
Vocabulary
Antebellum PeriodTemperance
2nd Great AwakeningWCTU
RevivalismDorthea Dix
MillennialismThomas Gallaudet
MormonsHorace Mann
Joseph SmithMcGuffey Readers
TranscendentalistsSarah Grimke
Ralph EmersonLucretia Mott
Henry David ThoreauElizabeth Cady Stanton
On Civil Disobedience Susan B. Anthony
Brook FarmSeneca Falls Convention
Utopian SocietiesAmerican Colonization Society
ShakersAbolition
New HarmonyWilliam Lloyd Garrison
OneidaThe Liberator
Hudson River School of Art Gradual v. Immediate Emancipation
Washington IrvingFrederick Douglass
James Fennimore CooperHarriet Tubman
Nathaniel HawthorneSojourner Truth
Sylvester GrahamAmelia Bloomer
Burned Over District Phrenology
Circuit Riders Walt Whitman
