Section Objectives
After you have completed this section, you will be able to:
- Theorize how Americans developed the world's first modern mass democracy, while forging a new national culture amid complex economic and political dynamics.
- Recognize, analyze, and evaluate the dynamics of historical continuity and change over periods of time of varying length.
- Contrast the identity developed by Americans with that of the monarchy-driven nations of Europe.
- Explain why social movements, such as transcendentalism, abolitionism, and the Second Great Awakening encouraged settlers to envision the United States as the realization of modern ideas, beliefs, and cultural statements.