Populism is often a broad label applied to a huge range of historic and contemporary political movements. Movements and leaders as diverse as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have been labeled as “populist.” Working individually or in groups, have students do an internet search on what the populist movement in the United States was. They can focus on secondary sources such as encyclopedias and Wikipedia to gather basic background information--enough to develop an outline of what they discovered about the topic. They should be able to answer what the movement was, how it got started, when did it take place, what was the Farmers’ Alliance, how did agrarian radicalism shift into a broader populist movement, and does modern populism reflect its agrarian roots? Have them share back to their class what they discovered.
Learn more about the history of political and social reform movements in North Dakota by visiting the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. Learn more about citizenship in North Dakota by visiting the Stutsman County Courthouse State Historic Site.