8-1 Vital Questions
1. What was revivalism?
2. How was the Second Great Awakening the second major example of popular religion revolt in American history?
3. How did the Unitarians' approach to the religious experience different from the revivalists' approach?
4. What is the connection between religious revivalism and early 19c democratic political ideals?
5. What is Evangelical Christianity?
6. Explain the special appeal of Evangelical Christianity to women and African Americans in the 19c.
7. List the characteristics of the philosophical and literary movement known as Transcendentalism.
8. Identify some of the major transcendentalist writers of the early 19c.
9. In what way did Thoreau's experience at "Walden" reflect transcendentalist beliefs?
10. Identify the sources of opposition to public education and explain the issues that defined that opposition.
11. Analyze Horace Mann's significance in the area of educational reform in the 19c.
12. What role did The McGuffey Reader play in educating generations of American children?
13. Explain the role of northern middle class women, like Dorothea Dix, in early 19c social reform movements.
14. Define the term utopian socialism and identify the major examples of American experimentation with utopian communities during the early 19c.
15. Why might the idea of utopian communities appeal to the transcendentalists?