Congressional Politics in the Gilded Age: A Classroom Simulation

Abstract

TI his classroom simulation uses active learning to introduce students to congressional politics using the national issues of the Gilded Age. Instructors can adjust the simulation to different grade levels (seventh grade to college) and time constraints (one to five class periods) using the various options provided. They can also shift the focus of the simulation from regional politics to political processes, historical events and persons, or a combination of all three. The simulation provides opportunities for historical and biographical research, writing assignments, class presentations, de bates, and use of parliamentary procedures as well as comparisons and contrasts with historical events. Congressional politics is particularly interesting in the Gilded Age because Congress played a predominant role in the national govern ment during much of the period, with majority control of Congress shifting frequendy between the two major political parties. Further more, the major parties had a penchant for straddling the most important issues, which led to intense interparty struggles as well as the emergence of a series of third parties. Also, the Gilded Age marks the transition from nineteenth-century political issues that usually generated regional and sectional loyalties to twentieth-century politi cal issues that tended to inspire national loyalties. Following the Civil War, new regional issues such as the coinage of silver and the regulation of railroads were added to the longstanding regional issues of the protective tariff and civil rights for African Americans.