Gilded AgeAll 5 grade bands · K-2 through APFree download
1884
Lesson plan.
Grover Cleveland vs James G. Blaine — Democrat Grover Cleveland ended 24 years of Republican presidential dominance by narrowly defeating James G. Blaine in a notoriously mud-slinging campaign. 'Mugwumps' — reform Republicans — defected to Cleveland over Blaine's corruption record. The election turned on New York, where a Protestant minister's anti-Catholic slur ('Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion') alienated Irish Catholic voters days before the election, likely costing Blaine the state and the presidency. Cleveland won New York by just 1,149 votes.
What is in each packet
Cover
Cycle metadata + band eyebrow
Lesson plan
Instructor — timing, materials, standards
Reading
Sized to grade band (K-2: ~250 words → AP: ~650)
Background
Curated cycles — 5-7 vocab terms + primary-source excerpt
Student worksheet
K-2: 3 questions → AP: 8, mixed format
Answer key
Instructor — rationale on every item
Discussion prompts
3 prompts tied to era
DBQ (AP only)
Long-essay + 5-point rubric + second source