The course is formulated around the study of an American identity that emerged with the articulation of Manifest Destiny in the 1840s. The ideology of Manifest Destiny, though not entirely new to Americans in that period, came to work as a justification for American expansion into the North American West largely because it facilitated the sense of exceptionalism that excused the costs of such expansion. In exploring the impact that it had and its influence on American history, we will connect Manifest Destiny to some of the more dramatic and formative events in US history, including the overland migration, the era of the gold rush, the Mexican-American War, and even the Civil War. In looking at how these issues of freedom, democracy, and opportunity play out in the American West and in the nascent American empire, we will look at the construction of race and the racialization of non-white people in the Americas, the promotion of American masculinity at home and abroad, and the balancing of American ideals and self-interest. We can then make broad connections with both the context and the legacies of this period by considering how much these themes remain part of an identity supported by many Americans today.