About the lecture

In this module, we trace the relentless onward march of the Americans into the west, focusing in particular on the importance of slavery to the US economy, the creation of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and its annexation into the United States in 1846, the Mexican-American War in 1846-48 and the question of whether the newly-acquired Mexican territories would be slave states or free states.

About the lecturer

Kevin Waite is an assistant professor in American history at Durham University, where he teaches and writes on slavery, imperialism, and the American West. His book-in-progress explores how slaveholders extended their political dominion across the American West in the mid-19th century, and in the process, hastened the coming of the Civil War. His scholarly articles and book chapters have covered a wide range of subjects: manliness in Napoleonic-era English public schools; the political struggle over America’s first transcontinental railroad; the evolving myth of George Armstrong Custer in Hollywood film; and the Civil War in Indian Territory.