1. Nation Building in America
POLITICAL CARTOON ANALYSIS

6. Nation Building in America
THE CROSS OF GOLD
WILLIAM JENNINGS bRYAN

7. P1: According to Bryan, why is his case strong?
P3: What is the most important issue? What color is mentioned frequently?
P4: Which past conflict is he referring to in the first sentence?
P5: According to Bryan, what is a businessman?
P 6-9: Why does Bryan say, “What we need is an Andrew Jackson”?
P10: How does laissez-faire relate to the issue in this paragraph? (The “Mr. Jefferson” he refers to is a contemporary, not Thomas Jefferson.)
P11: Which former American leader and founder would hold the view Bryan mentions (“prosperity will leak down to those below”)?
P12-15: What does it mean to “crucify mankind on a cross of gold”?
16: Interpret the first cartoon.
17: Interpret the second cartoon. (the face is Bryan’s)

8. Nation Building in America
Spiraling Questions
Group Work

9. Explain the ways in which the southern white establishment was able to evade the spirit of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. What alternative paths of accommodation and resistance did black leaders propose to this rise of Jim Crow?

10. The great industrialists of the late nineteenth century praised unfettered free enterprise as they worked to eliminate competition. How can these apparently conflicting ideologies be reconciled?

11. What factors combined to attract the great masses of people to the cities of America? What were the characteristics of these migrants? Do you believe that the hyperbole of American opportunity was felt by these immigrants?

12. Compare and contrast the three major farm groups: the Grange, the Farmers' Alliances, and the Populists. Do you agree with historians who believe that Populism was a reasonable and realistic response to agrarian grievances?

13. What hesitations and doubts about imperialism did Americans realize between 1865 and 1898? How did the Spanish-American War change all this? Was it really a splendid little war?

14. Nation Building in America
FREE RESPONSE ESSAY

15. Analyze the reasons for the emergence of the Populist movement in the late nineteenth century.
Your essays should include a well developed thesis, evidence (10), and analysis. You will have the thirty minutes to complete your response. 
FIRST PERIOD’S ESSAY

16. Although the economic growth of the United States between 1860 and 1900 has been attributed to a governmental policy of laissez-faire, it was in fact encouraged and sustained by direct governmental intervention. Assess the validity of this statement.
Your essays should include a well developed thesis, evidence (10), and analysis. You will have the thirty minutes to complete your response. 
SECOND PERIOD’S ESSAY

17. In what ways were the late nineteenth century Populists the heirs of the Jacksonian Democrats with respect to overall objectives AND specific proposals for reform?
Your essays should include a well developed thesis, evidence (10), and analysis. You will have the thirty minutes to complete your response. 
THIRD PERIOD’S ESSAY

18. Did the Republican Party from 1877 –1896 abandon its earlier principles and succumb to expediency?
Your essays should include a well developed thesis, evidence (10), and analysis. You will have the thirty minutes to complete your response. 
FIFTH PERIOD’S ESSAY