Sources for America’s History: Printed Page 241
How would you characterize the consequences of the rapid economic transformations that occurred in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century? Were there clear beneficiaries of the economic development in this period? If so, who were they?
To what extent did the Market Revolution create the problems reformers mobilized to fix?
Did the economic changes that occurred during this period encourage a more or less optimistic view of American society? Consider the tone of the authors/creators of the documents in this chapter.
Do you think Matthew Hale Smith would have agreed with Congressman Porter’s argument in favor of building the Erie Canal? Why or why not?
Where do you see the influence of Finney and other revivalists in the agenda of the American Temperance Society?