Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit VIII: Waves of Reform: 1880s to 1921

POPULISTS AND PROGRESSIVES

Lesson 1

POPULISTS AND PROGRESSIVES

  1. Your group task is to develop two political platforms -- one that addresses the concerns of the common man against "big business" and one that addresses the concerns of the laboring and unemployed people of the cities.

  2. Assume the roles of political activists in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

  3. Read selected CROSSROADS Resources (see end of lesson for list of suggested CROSSROADS Resources) and extract the major concerns that you believe the Populists and Progressives were seeking to address.

  4. As a group, write party platforms that indicate the political action your parties advocate to bring about changes in politics and society that you feel are needed to respond to the problems in American life in this period.

  5. Select two members from your group to deliver short speeches at a mock party convention.

  6. As a group, construct the speeches to be given and make a party banner bearing a slogan that can be raised during the speeches.

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