Note that we remain one class period behind the syllabus. My hope is to catch up gradually by the end of next week (week 5). If so, the first exam will remain scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4. If not, it is likely we will push the exam to Thursday, Oct. 6.
1. Be able to analyze the characteristics of the Democratic and Republican parties in the Gilded Age.
2. Why did so relatively little get accomplished by the U.S. government during the Gilded Age?
3. Why was civil service reform deemed an important issue in the early 1880s?
4. Why were tariffs such a key issue in the Gilded Age? What stance did each major political party take toward tariffs, and why?
5. What role did the state of the post-Reconstruction South play in Gilded Age politics?
6. Why did Henry Cabot Lodge propose the Lodge Force Bill? Why did it fail, and what resulted?
7. Why were farmers facing such difficult times in the 1870s-90s?
8. Whom did farmers blame for their problems, and what actions did they take during the Gilded Age?
9. How did the Farmers’ Alliance movement compare with the earlier Grange movement? Why did neither produce the desired results?
10. How did the People’s Party form, and how did it fare in the 1890s?
11. What role did the nation’s money supply play in the so-called “Populist movement” or “agrarian revolt?”
12. Describe the outcomes of the Election of 1896. Why was it a pivotal election?
13. To what extent can the Populist movement be called a success despite its shortcomings?
