A200, History of American Capitalisms

1.  How was a home supposed to be organized, in terms of people and their social roles inside and outside the family, according to economic thought and common practice across the 19th-century United States?

2.  How was a home characterized?  What was a home supposed to be, inside a political economy?

3.  What were the power implications of such characterizations and arrangements?  Unsurprisingly, women were denied power, but in what specific ways, and with what specific consequences?

4.  In what ways did some activist women try to challenge this, in the latter 19th century?

5.  This class we will be immersing ourselves in American life in the 19th century.  How do you imagine American life was like for people living in 1820?

6.  How do you imagine American life had changed by 1890?  What was new?  What was not new?

7.  Look back at your response to question #1 above.  Which people did you choose to consider when you wrote about “people”?  What kinds of people did you not consider?  Why do you think that unconsciously happened?