Identity

How did migration to the United States change popular ideas of American Identity and citizenship as well as regional and racial identities? How did the conflicts that led to the Civil War change popular ideas about national, regional, and racial identities throughout this period?

Work, Exchange,

and Technology

How did the maturing of northern manufacturing and the adherence of the South to an agricultural economy change the national economic system by 1877?

Peopling

How did the growth of mass migration to the United States and the railroad affect settlement patterns in cities and the West?

Politics and

Power

Why did attempts at compromise before the war fail to prevent the conflict? To what extent, and in what ways, did the Civil War and Reconstruction transform American political and social relationships?

America in the

World

How was the American conflict over slavery part of larger global events?   How did the world beyond North America perceive the Civil War ?

Environment

and Geography

How did the end of slavery and technological and military developments transform the environment and settlement patterns in the South and the West?

Ideas, Beliefs,

And Cultures

How did the doctrine of Manifest Destiny affect debates over territorial expansionism and the Mexican War? How did the Civil War struggle shape Americans’ beliefs about equality, democracy, and national destiny?