This article offers a detailed history of early 19th century westward migration and the social diversity of the pioneers moving west.

Describes the struggle of Americans to develop a unified sense of national identity in the 1800s.

Discusses the intellectual atmosphere in the 1800s as America struggled to find its identity. The influences of the Enlightenment and Romanticism are described, and the ideas of various writers and philosophers.

Article introduces era of political and social reform known as Progressivism, in late 19th through early 20th Centuries.