Posted: January 18th, 2016

Discuss two things about the painting that strike you and tie them in to our studies.

Study this image and the accompanying discussion by Professor Martha Sandweiss.  John Gast’s painting American Progress (1872) is a strong exemplar of the American belief in manifest destiny and American progress. http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/item.php?item_id=180  In this case, the context is the expansion across the American West, but the basic idea applied everywhere Americans went.  Discuss two things about the painting that strike you and tie them in to our studies. Then select a location from the map on page 359 (or elsewhere in chapter 20) and discuss briefly how the US came to be involved there and the justification for that involvement