Overview

The years from 1790 to 1877 saw the rise of distinctly American ideas, art, and reform. Cultural nationalism, religious revival, and philosophical movements such as transcendentalism shaped American identity, while reformers pushed to improve education, rights, and society.

Key Themes and Events

• Second Great Awakening: A major religious revival that emphasized personal salvation, emotional preaching, and egalitarian faith. It led to increased church membership and spurred reform movements like temperance and abolition.
• Transcendentalism and Literature: Philosophers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau stressed individualism and a spiritual connection to nature. Their works helped define American literary culture.
• Public Education: Leaders like Horace Mann advocated universal public schooling as essential to democracy. Literacy expanded, and regional disparities in education began to narrow.
• Women and Reform: Women played leading roles in temperance, abolition, and suffrage. Writers like Margaret Fuller advanced early feminist thought.
• Nationalism in Art and History: Artists like those in the Hudson River School celebrated American landscapes. Historians like George Bancroft promoted patriotic interpretations of U.S. history.
• Cultural Impact of War: The Civil War shaped national memory and inspired poetry, music, and memorial traditions. Postwar, there was a push to define unity and citizenship in cultural terms.

Quick Tip

Be able to connect religious revival to social reform, and know major figures in early American literature and education. CLEP questions may also ask about how nationalism shaped cultural expression.