Category Archives: Primary Source Documents

The Cross of Gold Speech, with Democrat/Populist champion William Jennings Bryan

The history of third parties is a very interesting study.  Typically, their electoral success is minimal-to-none.  However, some ideas of their platforms are often absorbed by the major parties.  In essence, their legacies are found in some of the policies enacted by administrations of subsequent mainstream politicians.

The Populists were no different.  The late 1800s represented their heyday.  They achieved some success at the state levels through such legislation as Granger laws and by electing some governors.  At the national level, Congress even seated members from their ranks.  They were unable to achieve electoral success in the presidency, however.  Their best chance in this realm came in 1896, when the Democrats nominated a champion of many Populist ideals in trumpet-voiced William Jennings Bryan.  He, however, was defeated soundly by Ohio Republican William McKinley.

Stanford University has a wonderful department in their education school called Stanford History Education Group (SHEG).  SHEG has produced a series of lesson plans, called Reading Like an Historian, that utilizes primary sources as the driving factor behind achieving student interaction with the past.  These inquiry-based lessons are posted on their website.

SHEG’s lesson plan for Populism and the Election of 1896 can be found here.   Accompanying the lesson is also a link to a PowerPoint and a set of primary sources that align with the topic.

Additional lessons from the Gilded Age are also posted on the Reading Like an Historian website.

This election season has seen the issue of religion surface again and again.  The Romney campaign has labeled President Obama as an attacker of religion.  Romney’s own faith has been a subject of debate as well.

But this is not a new development.  Religion has played a role in presidential campaigns for over 150 years.  John C. Fremont’s possible Catholicism was questioned in 1856 by Democrats: if he was elected, would the Pope rule the U.S.?   Al Smith suffered similar attacks in 1928.  Neither candidate was elected; their links to the Catholic Church were part of the reason for this.  The trend in America politics seems to have been (and may still be) one of fear of and discomfort with the religiously unfamiliar.

The Living Room Candidate can help teachers provide students with a more-recent look at this trend.  Kennedy’s Catholicism was also scrutinized in 1960.  For teachers interested in this topic, and for teachers interested in the history of presidential campaign television commercials, this website provides a poignant video.  This video depicts Kennedy defending his ability to lead the nation as a Catholic while honoring the doctrine of separation of church and state.  Allaying the deeply-embedded (and absurd) fears of Protestant America that the Pope would sail up the Potomac as a crowned monarch upon his election was one of the many reasons why Kennedy won in 1960.  This made him the first Catholic president in United States’ history.

JFK and Pope Paul VI, 1963

What is a social studies teacher to do with television being dominated by presidential campaign advertisements?  It is very tempting to be cynical and decry the commercialization of politics in our culture.  An alternative pedagogical route would be to provide the historical background of presidential commercials.

The thirteenth edition of The American Pageant provides a critical analysis of the 1952 presidential campaign.   This campaign marked a major change over time, as it represented the first time in which presidential candidates used heavy doses of television ads in order to gain votes.  Bailey, et al, on page 887 of that edition, critiques the Eisenhower camp’s political ads, stating that they were “tightly scripted,” “devoid of substance,” and that they “vastly oversimplified complicated economic and social issues.”  All of this, the historians claim, “foreshadowed the future of political advertising.”

Are these claims true?  One website that may help a teacher answer this question and provide historical insight to presidential commercials for students.  The Living Room Candidate is a treasure trove of many of the most influential presidential campaign advertisements from the television age.  By going to their 1952 campaign site, a teacher can get students to critically evaluate the claims of American Pageant.

Were Ike’s commercials “tightly scripted“?

Were Ike’s commercials “devoid of substance“?

Did they “oversimplify complicated economic issues“?

Of course, teachers should not overlook the Adlai Stevenson campaign either.  Why would your students make of these ads?

“Adlai to You”

“Ike…Bob”

“Platform Double Talk”

Be sure also to note the very helpful tabs that provide context to the campaign under the headings “1952,” “Eisenhower,” “Stevenson,” and “Results.”

"Selling the President like toothpaste" --The American Pageant

Many APUSH classes are beginning their study of the reasons that Colonial America sought  separation from Great Britain. One of the many significant undercurrents of this era was the First Great Awakening. TAH has a fabulous curriculum unit that, through the use of primary documents, introduce students to the First Great Awakening, as well as to the ways in which religious-based arguments were used both in support of and against the American Revolution. These lessons can be found here.