| Additional Class Topics
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Additional Class Topics

For Further Interest: Additional Class Topics
Chapter 23: Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869 - 1896

  • Focus on the Tweed scandal as both event and symbol of the generally corrupt atmosphere of the times. Thomas Nast political cartoons make a good starting point.

  • Discuss Grants failures as president in contrast with his success as a general. Contrast his performance with that of other general-presidents like Washington or Jackson who were successful politicians.

  • Consider the Compromise of 1877 in relation to race and sectional conflict. Ask whether a Republican unwillingness to compromise by ending Reconstruction might have led to renewed sectional violence.

  • Examine the corrupt J.P. Morgan gold deal of 1895 as a symbol of what many Americans saw as the capture of the federal government by big business. Consider Morgan himself as an important political as well as economic figure, and ask whether he deserved the villainous treatment he received from critics and protestors.

  • Have students read the following novel: Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, New York: Vintage Books, 2003. A true story about the lives of two men the architect behind the 1893 World Fair in Chicago and the serial killer who used the World Fair to lure his victims to their death. #1 National Bestseller and National Book Award Finalist.

  • Have the students read Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warners novel The Gilded Age (1873). Use the novel to illustrate the level of political corruption in the post-antebellum era.

  • Conduct a class debate over the following topics: e.g., Excluding Chinese Immigrants Runs Counter to the Spirit of America; primary source readings will come from the following book Opposing Viewpoints in American History Volume II: From Reconstruction to the Present, San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Another good source of debate topics is Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle, Taking Sides Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volume II: Reconstruction to the Present, Connecticut: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
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