West Los Angeles College Americas History Questions

1. What is your position on Jackson’s treatment of the Indians?

2. What do you think about Jackson’s ideas on rotation and decentralization?

3. Do you agree with the Labor Theory of Value?

4. Think about the Transportation Revolution — are recent developments in transportation more or less remarkable, relative to the different society we live in today?

5. What is interesting about the Second Great Awakening?

6. What was it that was leading to more slaves being freed at this time?

7. What are your thoughts on the arguments in favor of slavery?

8. How did Christianity intersect with the lives of slaves?

9. How did Emerson affect American literature — does this even matter?

10. How did abolitionists at this time attack the institution of slavery?

11. Was the Civil War necessary? Many argue that it was not, that slavery would have died out within a few decades (it certainly would have, that’s unquestionable), and that the war was a tremendous loss of money, lives, and resources that could have been avoided. What do you think?

12. What do you think about issue of “contraband” in the Civil War?

13. Manifest destiny — does this notion survive today in the United States?

14. This one is sort of open: What are your thoughts regarding the Mexican American War, how it started, and what happened when it was over?