Discussion Questions:

1.  Describe the rise of Populism in the 1890s.  How and why was the Populist party formed?  What did it hope to accomplish?  Why did it fail to become a major party and gain control of the federal government?  Did it accomplish anything? 2.  Discuss the election of 1896.  Who were the candidates?  What were the issues?  What was the outcome?  Why was it an important watershed election? 3.  The author of Chapter 22 states that “on the issue of racial justice,” the record of the Progressives was “generally dismal.”  Do you agree with this statement?  Why or why not?  Support your position with as many relevant examples as possible of the actions of various progressives. 4.  In Chapter 22 the author concludes that the “Progressive Era… shines forth as a time when American politics seriously began to confront the massive social upheaval wrought by industrialization.”  But progressivism also “had it’s repressive, illiberal, and coercive dimensions.”  Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Support your position with as much specific evidence as possible.

5.  One historian has written this about progressive reform: “The Roosevelt Era … had been a period of beginnings, of a scattering of pioneer legislation … The Wilson Era, building on this foundation, was a period of sweeping achievement.”  Do you agree with this statement?  Why or why not?  Support your position with as much specific evidence as possible.