history

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Write a book review of Susan Magoffin’s ‘Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico Lincoln’. “My journey tells a story tonight different from what it has ever done before,” writes Susan Magoffin. “The curtain rises now on a new scene.” Having read this famous opening statement and this remarkable diary, analyze and discuss Susan Magoffin’s journey of inquiry and discovery from Independence, Missouri, to Camargo, Mexico, in 1846. Be sure to think about Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War, her position in American society, her reaction to the voyage across the plains and at Bent’s Fort, her observations and reaction to life in New Mexico, and her response to the tense advance into Northern Mexico. To what degree do you think her feelings and views were typical of 1840s America ? To what degree to you think she modified or changed her opinions about some things during her journey? What do historians learn from sources such as diaries?