Why did Thomas B. Reed get the nickname "Czar" Reed? Describe the unorthodox actions he undertook, and explain why he resorted to high-handed control of the House. Do you agree with his tactics? With his goals? Why?
Trace the history of the currency question from the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to the passage of the Gold Standard Act.
Trace the history of American tariff policy from the McKinley Tariff to the Dingley Tariff.
Write your definition of radical. Then use this definition to argue that the farmers’ response to their problems was or was not a radical response.
Populists often charged that there was a conspiracy between government and big business intending to hold down the farmer and worker and that federal "courts were only the tools of the plutocrats." What evidence did they cite to "prove" this? Is their argument convincing to you? Why or why not?
Explain why the Populist party at first became the most successful third-party movement in American history up to that time; then explain why it failed to survive the decade of the 1890s.
Explain the gradual decline in the importance of agriculture in the national economy in the late nineteenth century. In what ways was the farmers’ response to this decline strictly based on their economic woes? In what ways did it go beyond immediate economic issues?
Why did "free silver" become the key issue of the farmers’ revolt? Did they have other important issues? What were they? Explain why Populism came down to a single-issue movement by 1896.
For many years the 1896 election was seen as the challenge of a champion of the people against the power of the candidate of big business and the status quo. Explain to what extent this view is an inaccurate assessment of the political forces at the time.
Had you lived during this period, which political party—Democratic, Republican, or Populist— would you have belonged to? Why?
Political historians often argue that the election of 1896 was a "turning-point" election and a "watershed year" in national politics. Why?