What were the main political issues facing the candidates in the 1864 presidential election, and was Lincoln's reelection in 1864 seriously in question?

Even though Abraham Lincoln was the incumbent president, victory in the 1864 election was not guaranteed in the months leading to November. The central issue of the election was the continuation of the Civil War and his opponent was former General of the Army of the Potomac, George McClellan. The prolonged conflict generated a myriad of concerns. The war had proven costly, both financially and with loss of life.
The Northern Democrats attempted to utilize the war weariness of the public by nominating someone with a decorated military experience. Previous elections, while the Whig Party still existed, indicated this to be a successful strategy with victories of former presidents Harrison and Taylor. Moreover, the Republican Party was centrally composed of politicians who had been formerly Whigs and General McClellan had been relieved of command by the President on two occasions. This created both added intensity and the decisiveness that the outcome of the election determined the outcome of the war. A Lincoln win meant seeing the war to its completion. A McClellan presidency would likely mean no period of reconstruction involving the 11 Confederate states.

As with any president, the ups and downs in office seldom provide comfort when facing re-election. Lincoln, in the throes of a lingering civil war which much of the electorate believed would last no more than a year and relatively free of bloodshed, found himself doubting his electability in 1864. It was not the first time domestic issues derailed a presidential candidate. And within his own party, prominent Republicans like Salmon P. Chase, Treasury Secretary, and John Charles Fremont, a commander with a poor track record during the Union campaign, were mulling a run at Lincoln or gauging the publics' desire for change in the office of the Commander and Chief.
The Confederate South certainly wanted to see change. The South in the election of 1860 had split the vote between two Democrats, Stephen Douglas in the North and John C. Breckenridge in the South. A third party candidate John Bell was in the election mix as well as Lincoln and his Democratic opposition. In the election of 1860, Douglas and Breckenridge combined for 47 percent of the popular vote, with Bell garnering 13 percent, leaving Lincoln with a governing popular vote of a paltry 40 percent. This most assuredly was on Lincoln's mind three months before the election of 1864 when he wrote, "This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected," on a document he asked each of his cabinet members to sign. The document urged them to cooperate with the new administration for the good of the country. Even close political allies and advisers believed the Lincoln administration would go down in defeat.
The dominating issue was, of course, the Civil War. The war was a bloody reminder the problem of slavery had not been dealt with, and slavery remained the core issue of the campaign. Lincoln had made it clear that his intention to see the war end with Union victory, regardless of how long it took to secure the end of slavery. His opposition proposed an immediate end to the war with a grand compromise implying a split in the union of states. Lincoln’s call for a unified nation was in contrast to his opponents who seemed unconcerned about splitting the United States or appeared to be playing to the emotions of voters for political purposes.
Historians generally agree that when the war turned to favor a Union victory over the Confederates, so did Lincoln's political future. Sherman's capture of Atlanta and successful campaign called the March to the Sea inspired voter confidence in Lincoln. Though re-election is never assured, the Lincoln campaign was able to label Confederate supporters traitors to the United States, and in a political turnaround, Lincoln received 78 percent of the popular vote, winning re-election.
The critical issue of keeping the United States whole and slavery were the driving issues of the campaign. Lincoln's margin of victory in the general election was considered by Lincoln to be a mandate to continue the war until the reunification of the country occurred, forever ending slavery.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-reelected

https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/abraham-lincoln-papers/history7.html

https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/lincolngrant.htm

Why were liberal and nationalistic ideas limited in Italy in 1884?

During the 1840s, Italy was experiencing a tumultuous period. The Revolutions of 1848 were led by people revolting against the monarchies of Europe in several countries. It all started in Sicily in January 1848. These nationalist and liberal factions of people who sought to establish a new republic faced incredible challenges while pursuing this endeavor. In particular, French military intervention in Rome restored order. A monarchy was re-established. Members of the middle class and clergy were not in favor of and feared the radical, socialist ideas of the nationalists and liberals, and they strengthened the law enforcement institutions within Italy after 1848. These absolutist, centralized, and repressive institutions ensured that political power was retained within the monarchy—and nobody else—for the majority of the second half of the 19th century in Italy.
They also led an effort to attack the press and liberal associations that threatened political life. Throughout the rest of the 19th century in Italy, these forces limited and constrained nationalistic and liberal ideas so that there was no infiltration or influence within the newly-established monarchy of Rome. The emerging middle classes, which sought to overtake the aristocracy and establishment middle class of landowners whose families were tied by marriage, were largely contained. They could not meaningfully resist the monarchy's grip over their social and political lives.

Was James Buchanan a good president? Why or why not?

The general consensus among historians is that James Buchanan was indeed a bad president. The main reason for this assessment is that he did nothing to stop the drift of the United States towards civil war; if anything, he accelerated it. His wholehearted endorsement of the notorious Dred Scott judgement and his support for the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas are simply the two most obvious examples of Buchanan making a bad situation a whole lot worse.
Some historians have accused Buchanan of inaction and indecisiveness, of failing to make a firm stand either for or against secession. Others have been even less charitable, accusing him not of failing to take a stand but of taking the wrong stand, a stand in favor of the Southern states. As evidence, they cite his final address to Congress, where he heaped all the blame for the rapidly deteriorating political crisis on Northern opponents of slavery, accusing them of interfering with the rights of the Southern states.
Such blatant partiality towards the South was fairly typical of Buchanan's general attitude. He had, after all, been elected president mainly on the back of Southern votes, but what the United States needed at this crucial turning-point in its history was a spirit of bipartisanship from its president. Instead, Buchanan provided blatant pro-Southern bias. Instead of rising to the challenge of his time and providing much-needed leadership when it was most needed, Buchanan chose to ignore the many problems caused by the issue of slavery, thus virtually guaranteeing civil war.

What does Pip learn about being a gentleman?

Pip is a poor orphan boy who knows nothing about the real world and certainly nothing about the world of the upper class. Miss Havisham is the second person of a higher class that he meets in his life, and her adopted daughter Estella is the first. Because of her beauty and superficial sophistication, the haughty girl becomes a symbol of everything desirable in the world--but Pip fails to realize that when he meets the haggard, forlorn Miss Havisham a few minutes later, he is also seeing what Estella will be like in the future.
By a miracle Pip finds himself chosen to become transformed from a blacksmith's apprentice into a real London gentleman. He does not realize that being a gentleman is not a real occupation. In fact, most gentlemen are incapable of work and despise work. They treat honest working men with contempt--an attitude which is a sure mark of a gentleman.
A good example of gentlemen is seen in Chapter 34 of Great Expectations, where Pip describes the behavior of the young members of the "club" called "The Finches of the Grove."
So now, as an infallible way of making little ease great ease, I began to contract a quantity of debt. I could hardly begin but Herbert must begin too, so he soon followed. At Startop's suggestion, we put ourselves down for election into a club called the Finches of the Grove: the object of which institution I have never divined, if it were not that the members should dine expensively once a fortnight, to quarrel among themselves as much as possible after dinner, and to cause six waiters to get drunk on the stairs. I know that these gratifying social ends were so invariably accomplished, that Herbert and I understood nothing else to be referred to in the first standing toast of the society: which ran, “Gentlemen, may the present promotion of good feeling ever reign predominant among the Finches of the Grove.”
These unfortunate gentlemen have nothing to do with their lives but fill up the time from morning to night. Pip has a big advantage over them because he has grown up in a household where a man works hard to produce things of value to society. It is appropriate that Pip's first role model was a blacksmith, doing the hardest kind of work. Pip's friend Herbert has a sort of negative advantage in seeing how his father Matthew's fecklessness has led him into a desperate situation. Herbert is a gentleman, but he knows that being a gentleman is not really an occupation. He wants a real occupation. In the end, Pip comes to respect people who work for their livings and are an asset to society rather than a burden and a bad example. Pip realizes that he should have made something of himself, something other than a "gentleman." A real gentleman does not allow himself to become a helpless dependent and a parasite.
By the beginning of Chapter 34, Pip realizes he is on a slippery slope.
When I woke up in the night—like Camilla—I used to think, with a weariness on my spirits, that I should have been happier and better if I had never seen Miss Havisham's face, and had risen to manhood content to be partners with Joe in the honest old forge.
Pip's greatest insight comes in Chapter 39 with the shocking appearance of Abel Magwitch out of the howling storm of reality, who reveals himself as Pip's secret benefactor. Pip realizes with horror that he has been made into a weak, improvident parasite and has satisfied Magwitch's idea and ideal of a "gentleman"--a loafer, a man-about-town, a clothes horse, a spendthrift.
Yes, Pip, dear boy, I've made a gentleman on you! It's me wot has done it! I swore that time, sure as ever I earned a guinea, that guinea should go to you. I swore arterwards, sure as ever I spec'lated and got rich, you should get rich. I lived rough, that you should live smooth; I worked hard that you should be above work. What odds, dear boy? Do I tell it fur you to feel a obligation? Not a bit. I tell it, fur you to know as that there hunted dunghill dog wot you kep life in, got his head so high that he could make a gentleman—and, Pip, you're him!

Describe how the US economy changed as a result of the stock market crash of 1929 and the depression. What effects did these economic changes have on the lives of American citizens?

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 and the Great Depression that followed changed almost everything about American life.
The crash wiped out huge amounts of wealth and led to a global economic crisis. In the US, half the banks closed for good, wiping out peoples' savings. Not only did people lose their nest eggs but unemployment skyrocketed, and at the Depression's peak nearly 30% of the workforce was unemployed.
At this time, the prevailing idea was that the federal government's primary role was to provide for the national defense; the nation's government had almost no role in social welfare. This meant that, when the economy collapsed, people had no safety net. There was no deposit insurance, which guaranteed that money that was put in a bank would be replaced in case of a failure; there was no unemployment insurance; there was no minimum wage, which became a problem when desperate people were competing for very few jobs; and there were no food stamps. Many peoples' homes were foreclosed when they couldn't make their mortgage payments after losing their jobs and their savings. In 1932, as many as one thousand homes were being foreclosed daily.
People settled in tent villages, which were called "Hoovervilles"—after President Hoover, who was perceived as not doing enough to address the crisis. Hoover did take steps to provide assistance, but this approach was limited. He did not wish to interfere in the economic process of the free markets—or the "invisible hand"—believing they would eventually right themselves. However, when this strategy proved to yield few results, he was voted out of office.
Franklin Roosevelt's promise of a New Deal for the American people appealed strongly to a population who had experienced firsthand the "old deal," which relied solely on free markets and private charity to solve economic problems. With the New Deal, the federal government assumed a role of responsibility beyond national defense for the first time. It reinterpreted the role of government to include the provision of physical and economic welfare for its citizens. It was reasoned that, in a democracy, the people are the foundation of the government, and the government should therefore work in the people's interest. It was believed that bringing prosperity back to the people would not only revitalize business but the entire economy.
While many of the programs the New Deal enacted do not seem revolutionary by modern standards, at the time they were considered a radical change as a result of the Great Depression. The New Deal changed life for all US citizens and subsequent generations.
For example, with the New Deal, Roosevelt created government work programs to provide employment and to pump money back into the economy, as private industry had failed to do so. In the 1930s, creating government jobs to prop up the economy was a radical idea. Furthermore, under FDR's administration, Congress passed the National Housing Act of 1934; the federal government made home mortgages more affordable, helping to revitalize the housing and construction markets. Congress also passed the Social Security Act of 1935, which not only provided a system for accumulating a retirement income, but also established programs for unemployment insurance, financial help for the handicapped, and aid to widowed mothers with dependent children. Additionally, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established a minimum wage and curtailed child labor. On the banking front, since self regulation had failed, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banking and curtailed investors from taking careless risks with peoples' money.
While the Great Depression would last until the huge government investment in World War II revitalized the economy, the groundwork that the New Deal laid in federal welfare programs had a lasting impact on American citizens. By concerning itself with the social welfare of its citizens and actively setting up an economic safety net, a large majority of US citizens were able to prosper after World War II.

What was the conversation Pip had with Miss Havisham after the revelation of his benefactor?

In chapter 44, Pip returns to the Satis House after meeting Magwitch and learning that his benefactor was actually a convict and not the stately Miss Havisham. Pip begins by telling Miss Havisham and Estella that he has discovered the identity of his benefactor but cannot elaborate more on the subject for various reasons. Pip then asks Miss Havisham a series of questions to confirm that she never had any intentions of becoming his benefactor and purposely led him to believe that she was his patron. Miss Havisham confirms that she only meant to employ Pip as her servant, that it was simply a coincidence that Mr. Jaggers worked for both her and his benefactor, and that she purposely led him and the Pocket family to believe that she was his patron.
Pip then asks Miss Havisham to carry on anonymous investments in Herbert's career because he can no longer continue to make the payments. He then proceeds to confess his love for Estella, who responds by telling Pip that she is incapable of loving anyone and will follow through with her plans to marry Drummle. As Estella proceeds to break Pip's heart, he notices Miss Havisham revealing her softer side by showing remorse for her actions and his depressing situation. Pip says,

When I raised my face again, there was such a ghastly look upon Miss Havisham’s, that it impressed me, even in my passionate hurry and grief. (Dickens, 644).

Despite Miss Havisham's show of grief and pity, Pip leaves the Satis House utterly dejected and proceeds to walk back to London alone.

What is particularly intriguing about the way in which the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" begins?

The opening paragraphs of Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" are particularly intriguing in the way he portrays a silent, futuristic smart home without any family present. While Bradbury depicts the convenient voice clock and overhead speakers informing the residents of the time and their daily reminders, he also emphasizes the emptiness of the home.
As the technologically advanced kitchen stove prepares a full breakfast and the memory tapes play their routine messages, the absence of the family is particularly intriguing. The reader is immersed in the setting and the mystery surrounding the family's absence is rather disturbing and ominous. By illustrating the glaringly empty technologically advanced home, the reader is intrigued to learn where the residents have gone or what might have happened to them. It is only after the various mechanisms inside the house clean up breakfast and the sun begins to rise when the reader learns that it is the only home standing in the wake of a nuclear attack.