For me, the most compelling and insightful lesson was lesson 4, the Western Frontier and Expansion. While I hate to admit this, I never paid attention during my history lessons and therefore had incredibly limited knowledge of western expansion and manifest destiny. Through this lesson I was able to look through the perspective of the American settlers as they began expanding into territory that they believed was their god given right. I learned about the powerful religious pull experienced by the colonists and that the doctrine was built on three principles; faith in the Bible, faith alone, and faith in the priesthood. This "faith" many will argue, is merely a poor excuse for the brutal and usually unjust treatment of the Native American Indians.
