1. Westward movement was made possible in the late 1800's because of inventions in transportation and agriculture. Railroads and canals made it easy to travel into the frontier, as plank roads were made useless. The inventions of the reaper and the steel plow made the Great Plains useful farmland, and settlement of the West increased.
2. The industrialization and growth of factories in the 1800's came with huge problems for workers. Children were subject to harsh conditions and difficult hours. Workers had low wages and long hours, barely supporting families. Women also had terrible conditions and couldn't even control their own property.
3. Because of the reform many desired, utopias emerged as a way to live in a "perfect community." However, almost all of these communities didn't last long because they simply did not provide the perfect life people envisioned. The only long lasting communities were the Amana colonies in Iowa, where their woolen goods became popular enough to support them.
4. The New England writing with a distinct American identity from the 1840's to 1850's can be traced to Ralph Waldo Emerson. His speech, The American Scholar , in 1837, criticized writers for imitating European writing instead of being unique. Writers like Melville, Dickinson, and Thoreau followed Emerson in creating an American identity of writing.
5. Originally coming from Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, Transcendentalism emerged in America as a popular influence to writers. The philosophy varied in details from writer to writer, but all concentrated on the importance of nature and the knowledge people have without personal experience. Transcendentalism influenced writers like Emerson and Thoreau.
