TEACHER’S GUIDE
TEACHER’S GUIDE
• The 1896 presidential election was one of the most interesting and hotly
contested political battles in United States history, with major social and
economic issues at stake.Ask individual students to research one issue
or personality associated with the campaign. Students may analyze
political cartoons, assess political strategies and analyze the appeal of
various political platforms. As students share their findings with the
class, ask them to speculate about why the 1896 election has been
called the first modern presidential election.A wealth of information on
the 1896 election can be found at this Web site: (Note: This Vassar College
site contains material from the 19th century that is reflective of the cultural stereotypes of the day.) iberia.vassar.edu/1896/1896home.html
• In 1901, United States President William McKinley was assassinated by
an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz.As a result,Vice President Theodore
Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States. In his first
speech to Congress, Roosevelt denounced anarchists and their violent
attacks against established governments. Read with your class the passages of Roosevelt’s speech that refer to anarchists and ask students to
compare the violence that Roosevelt spoke of to attacks perpetrated by
modern terrorists. Students may also write journal entries comparing
and contrasting historic and modern responses to political violence.
Roosevelt’s message can be found at this Web site: www.polsci.ucsb.edu/
projects/presproject/idgrant/sou_pages/troosevelt1su.html
• In 1911, over a hundred people — mostly immigrant women — were killed
in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Review with
students the circumstances surrounding this tragedy and the transcripts
from the subsequent trial.Ask students to conduct a mock trial for Max
Blanck and Isaac Harris, the owners of the company, and speculate about
the social and political consequences of the jury’s decision in this case.
Excellent primary source material on the fire and trial may be found
at this Web site: www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/
trianglefire.html
• Ask students to read writings and speeches of worker advocates such
as Mother Jones, Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs and to summarize
and assess their beliefs and concerns. Ask students to portray these
historic labor leaders and write speeches reflecting how they might
respond to current social, political and economic conditions in America.
The Samuel Gompers Papers may be found at this Web site:
www.inform.umd.edu/hist/Gompers/web1.html
• xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/VEBLEN/veb_toc.html
The University of Virginia provides teachers and students with the full text
of Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class.
• douglassarchives.org/brya_a26.htm
The Douglass Archives of American Public Address contains the complete
text of William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech.
Suggested Print Resources
• Gorn, Elliot J. Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America.
Hill and Wang, New York; NY; 2001.
• Papke, David Ray. The Pullman Case: The Case of Labor and Capital in
Industrial America. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; 1999.
• Stein, Leon. Triangle Fire. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY; 2001.
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TM
A NATION
COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES
• Three Worlds Meet (Origins–1620)
• The Era of Colonization (1585–1763)
• Slavery & Freedom
• The American Revolution
• A New Nation (1776–1815)
• Expansionism
• Democracy & Reform
• Causes of the Civil War
• The Civil War
• Reconstruction & Segregation (1865–1910)
• Industrialization & Urbanization
(1870–1910)
• Immigration & Cultural Change
• A Nation in Turmoil
Teacher’s Guides Included
and Available Online at:
• The Progressive Movement
• U.S. & The World (1865–1917)
• The Great War
• The Roaring Twenties
• The Great Depression
& The New Deal
• World War II
• Post-War U.S.A.
• The Cold War
• Civil Rights
• The Vietnam War
• The Middle East
• U.S. Politics (1960–1980)
• U.S. Politics (1980–2000)
800-843-3620
Teacher’s Guide Copyright 2003 by Schlessinger Media,
a division of Library Video Company
D6773
P.O. Box 580,Wynnewood, PA 19096 • 800-843-3620
V7013
Program Copyright 1996, 2003 by Schlessinger Media
Executive Producer:Andrew Schlessinger
Original production produced and directed by Invision Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
IN
TURMOIL
Grades 5–12
TEACHER’S GUIDE
Jeffrey W. Litzke, M.Ed.
Curriculum Specialist, Schlessinger Media
Rudolph Lea
Historian
Suggested Internet Resources
Periodically, Internet Resources are updated on our Web site at
www.LibraryVideo.com
• memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayhome.html
The Library of Congress’“Chicago Anarchists on Trial” site offers
excellent primary source materials related to the Haymarket Affair.
(Continued)
TEACHER’S GUIDE
T
his guide is a supplement designed for teachers
to use when presenting programs in the United
States History series.
Before Viewing: Give students an introduction
to the topic by relaying aspects of the program
summary to them. Select pre-viewing discussion
questions and vocabulary to provide a focus for
students when they view the program.
After Viewing: Review the program and vocabulary, and use the follow-up activities to inspire
continued discussion. Encourage students to
research the topic further with the Internet and
print resources provided.
This program correlates to the following
Prentice Hall textbooks:
The American Nation: Chapters 19 and 20
America: Pathways to the Present: Chapters 4 and 5
Program Summary
Industrialization transformed America, creating a small business elite with
unprecedented wealth and power, a thriving middle class and an expanding
class of largely immigrant factory workers. However, the U.S. economy
struggled in the late 19th century, with the country experiencing two
crippling depressions and several recessions, leading to widespread business
failures, worker layoffs and pay cuts. Fueled by worker outrage over these
developments, tensions escalated between workers and business owners,
leading to serious, often violent labor strife.
While labor organized to protest their place in the nation’s economy and
what they saw as corrupt business practices, factory owners justified their
own status with Social Darwinist beliefs, expressing that success came to the
fittest, and suggesting that anyone could rise from “rags to riches.” The
Knights of Labor organized nationwide strikes and boycotts, but employers
struck back with strikebreakers, Pinkerton detectives, police and militias. These bitter conflicts resulted in major confrontations in Haymarket
Square, the Homestead Steel plant and the Pullman Palace Car Company.
Farmers suffered economically at this time as well, and formed associations
to protest against high freight rates charged by railroads and high interest
rates charged by banks. Out of their discontent emerged the Populist Party,
whose candidate won more than a million votes in the 1892 presidential
election. The Populists also ran a vigorous campaign in 1896 and backed
William Jennings Bryan as the Democratic candidate for president, but
Republican William McKinley was elected in a decisive outcome.
As economic prosperity returned in the period after the 1896 election,
strikes and labor violence diminished. Although there was a pause in the
industrial conflict, it was far from over. It would take a new turn in the next
two decades, as the Progressive Movement would use the political process,
not the picket line, to lobby for reform.
Time Line
1869 — The Knights of Labor is founded.
1877 — The Great Railroad Strike takes place.
1886 — Several people are killed at the Haymarket Square bombing.
1886 — The American Federation of Labor is founded.
1889 — The Homestead Strike occurs.
1892 — The Populist Party is organized.
1892 — Grover Cleveland is elected president of the United States.
1894 — Coxey’s Army conducts a march on Washington.
1894 — The Pullman strike takes place.
1896 — William McKinley is elected president of the United States.
Vocabulary
The Great Railroad Strike — In 1877, rail workers go on strike in the first
nationwide labor action in American history. Many are killed when federal
troops intervene.
(Continued)
2
industrialization — The movement toward replacing animal and water
power with machines, which dramatically changed the way people lived and
worked.
workman’s compensation — Money paid to workers for medical
expenses incurred as a result of injury on the job.
child labor laws — Laws that ban the employment of children under a
specified age.
“rags to riches” — A popular belief of the last half of the 19th century
derived from the stories of Horatio Alger, who stressed the theme that the
poor can become rich and successful in America by working hard.
The Civil War — A major war in the United States between 1861 and 1865
in which northern states battled southern states that were attempting to
leave the Union.
The Knights of Labor — The first national labor union, founded in 1869,
that fought for issues such as the eight-hour workday.
boycott — An economic protest against a business or organization, usually
in the form of a refusal to purchase goods or services.
Haymarket Square — A site in Chicago where a deadly bombing occurred
in 1886.The bombing was the culmination of violence related to a strike at
the McCormick Harvester plant.
anarchist — A person who believes that all forms of government are
harmful to individual rights and liberties and should therefore be abolished.
The word anarchy is of Greek origin, meaning “without rule.”
American Federation of Labor (AFL) — The first successful national
labor union, founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886, comprised of separate
trade unions of skilled workers.
Homestead Steel — A steel company in Pennsylvania that was the site of
one of the most important labor battles of the 1890s.
trade union — A group of skilled workers organized in order to obtain
higher wages and better working conditions.
Pinkerton agents — Private detectives used by industrialists to fight
strikers.
lockout — An action by an employer to refuse employees entry to the workplace in order to force concessions in a dispute or a strike.
court injunctions — Orders by judges to enjoin or forbid a party from
taking a specified action — used frequently against labor unions to forbid
them to strike.
Grange — A national association of farmers, founded in 1867, to further their
agricultural interests, such as fighting against monopolistic transportation costs.
cooperatives — Associations of farmers who join together for the purpose
of marketing their products in large quantities to avoid the costs of middlemen and obtain better prices.
Southern Farmers Alliance — An association of farmers in the American
South who organized to advance their economic and political interests and
to fight against rural poverty.
(Continued)
3
Populism — An agrarian political movement in the U.S. headed by the
Populist or People’s Party to promote the interests of the common people.
Coxey’s Army — A group of people led by Joseph Coxey, who protested
the difficult economic conditions of the late 19th century by marching on
Washington, D.C.
Pullman Palace Car Company — A company that manufactured
sleeping cars, parlor cars, and dining cars, which experienced significant
labor problems in 1894.
Pre-viewing Discussion
• Ask students to discuss their knowledge of labor unions. What is the
purpose of a union? Why do people go on strike? What are students’
perceptions of unions? Are they helpful or detrimental?
• In banking terms, what is interest? How do interest rates affect an individual or company’s ability to borrow money? Speculate about how
interest rates affect the economy as a whole.
• Many people criticized federal court decisions that consistently favored
big business in the late 19th century.Ask students to evaluate the statement,“It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for
the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street and for Wall
Street.”
Follow-up Discussion
• To bring attention to terrible economic conditions and to ask for federal
relief, Joseph Coxey led a march on Washington in 1894.Ask students to
evaluate Coxey’s decision to march and the government’s reaction to his
protest.
• In an unprecedented fund-raising and organizing effort, businessman
Mark Hanna helped funnel millions of dollars from wealthy individuals
and corporations to support William McKinley in the 1896 election.Ask
students to discuss the historic and modern roles of money in political
campaigns.
• Ask students to consider the argument that William Jennings Bryan’s
“Cross of Gold” speech may have won him the Democratic nomination
for president in 1896, but lost him the election.
Follow-up Activities
• Assign groups of students each a different 19th-century strike to
research. Groups may review the Railroad Strike (1877), the Haymarket
Affair (1886), the Homestead strike (1892) and the Pullman strike
(1894).Ask groups to describe the issues and evaluate government and
court responses to each incident. Groups may also role-play settlement
negotiations between managers and prominent labor leaders.
(Continued)
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