Students explore how the growing power of Latino voters improves chances for comprehensive immigration reform and consider some of the economic benefits of immigration.

A racist poster attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate John White Geary for his support of black suffrage. (See also "The Constitutional Amendment!," no. 1866-5.) The artist purports to show the convention of Radical Republicans held in Philadelphia in September 1866. On a dais in the background left, black men cheer as a procession of white men arm-in-arm with blacks enter from the right. The legend below reads: "Every Radical Candidate for United States Senator took part. "White Men & Women Are You Ready for This?" |Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-7.

A satire on the Democrats' defeat in the fall New York state elections, here viewed as a referendum on Van Buren's independent treasury, or "Sub-treasury" system. A large ball labeled "Sub Treasury" is pushed down a hill by successful Whig gubernatorial candidate William H. Seward, who says, "A long push, a strong push, and a push all together, and down goes Tyranny and Oppression!" He is assisted by three other men whose arms are linked, one of whom holds a banner with the Whig motto "Preserve Credit and Commerce." Inside the ball is a sleeping Van Buren, who exclaims, "I must be dreaming, for it seems to me, I am going down hill!" The ball rolls onto New York Democratic incumbent governor William Marcy, wearing a uniform with a "50 cents" trouser patch (See "Executive Marcy and the Bambers," no. 1838-5), and several other men, including Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. Benton cries, "Push Governor; or down you goes!" Another holds a flag with the words "Trades Union" and cries "Lord ha! Marcy upon us!" In the lower left a crowd of workingmen applaud the scene. Among them are a farmer, a seaman, and a driver or husbandman who waves his hat and says, "Huzza! for the Empire State, she has sent the Ball rolling back again, in double quick time!"|Entd . . . 1838 by H.R. Robinson . . . Southn. Dist. of N.Y.|Printed & publd. by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt.|Probably drawn by H.D. (Henry Dacre?)|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 52.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1838-13.

This is a lesson plan about Reconstruction and the use of the veto during this period. It investigates how members of Congress and President Andrew Johnson utilized their Constitutional powers to shape the Reconstruction Era. 

Tammany political boss William Marcy Tweed is portrayed as a bullying schoolteacher giving New York City comptroller Richard B. Connolly a lesson in arithmetic. A teary-eyed Connolly stands on a stool writing wildly inaccurate equations on a blackboard. For instance, "$147 x 2 equals $1380948"). Connolly protests to his teacher, "These figures wont suit my Father the public," but Tweed responds, "Never mind the public Mind me I will make a rich man of you 12 years ago I was poor, now I am rich by this new arithmetic." Behind the board are two padlocked ledgers-- "City Debt 1871 125,000,000" and "City Debt 1869 30,000,000." Exaggerated bills for the building of the county courthouse are posted on the wall. The building's final cost was $12 million, of which two-thirds was fraudulent. In less than three years Tweed's "ring" of corrupt officials managed to rob the city's treasury of $30 million.|Entered . . . 1871 by Thomas Kelly.|Lith. by Wm. C. Robertson 59 Cedar St. N.Y.|Pub. by Ths. Kelly 17 Barclay St. N.Y.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Werner, p. 165-167.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1871-3.

The Beneath An Unknown Sky companion curriculum consists of six lesson plans designed for eighth through twelfth grades . Each lesson plan is inspired by monologues from the film and utilizes primary source materials to add historical context to the events and characters depicted in the film. Special attention is paid to developing historical research skills by asking the students to identify, analyze and evaluate primary sources, review secondary source material, transcribe primary source documents, design an oral history project, and to complete short research projects. The topics covered in the lesson plans include but are not limited to the following: the experience of Freedmen in the Mississippi Delta, Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, Mississippi “Black codes”, Women’s history, the Reconstruction Amendments, Voting Rights, the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, Black political office holders from Mississippi, and the Mississippi Plan. The curriculum is intended to be flexible in its approach to better meet the needs of educators. The curriculum along with the film will be made available to educators as a free, open-source resource. Educators can use the curriculum in its entirety or can pick and choose between the lesson plans to fit the scope and time constraints of their individual classrooms.

The Beneath An Unknown Sky companion curriculum consists of six lesson plans designed for eighth through twelfth grades . Each lesson plan is inspired by monologues from the film and utilizes primary source materials to add historical context to the events and characters depicted in the film. Special attention is paid to developing historical research skills by asking the students to identify, analyze and evaluate primary sources, review secondary source material, transcribe primary source documents, design an oral history project, and to complete short research projects. The topics covered in the lesson plans include but are not limited to the following: the experience of Freedmen in the Mississippi Delta, Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, Mississippi “Black codes”, Women’s history, the Reconstruction Amendments, Voting Rights, the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, Black political office holders from Mississippi, and the Mississippi Plan. The curriculum is intended to be flexible in its approach to better meet the needs of educators. The curriculum along with the film will be made available to educators as a free, open-source resource. Educators can use the curriculum in its entirety or can pick and choose between the lesson plans to fit the scope and time constraints of their individual classrooms.

The Beneath An Unknown Sky companion curriculum consists of six lesson plans designed for eighth through twelfth grades . Each lesson plan is inspired by monologues from the film and utilizes primary source materials to add historical context to the events and characters depicted in the film. Special attention is paid to developing historical research skills by asking the students to identify, analyze and evaluate primary sources, review secondary source material, transcribe primary source documents, design an oral history project, and to complete short research projects. The topics covered in the lesson plans include but are not limited to the following: the experience of Freedmen in the Mississippi Delta, Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, Mississippi “Black codes”, Women’s history, the Reconstruction Amendments, Voting Rights, the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, Black political office holders from Mississippi, and the Mississippi Plan. The curriculum is intended to be flexible in its approach to better meet the needs of educators. The curriculum along with the film will be made available to educators as a free, open-source resource. Educators can use the curriculum in its entirety or can pick and choose between the lesson plans to fit the scope and time constraints of their individual classrooms.

The Beneath An Unknown Sky companion curriculum consists of six lesson plans designed for eighth through twelfth grades . Each lesson plan is inspired by monologues from the film and utilizes primary source materials to add historical context to the events and characters depicted in the film. Special attention is paid to developing historical research skills by asking the students to identify, analyze and evaluate primary sources, review secondary source material, transcribe primary source documents, design an oral history project, and to complete short research projects. The topics covered in the lesson plans include but are not limited to the following: the experience of Freedmen in the Mississippi Delta, Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, Mississippi “Black codes”, Women’s history, the Reconstruction Amendments, Voting Rights, the Mississippi Constitution of 1868, Black political office holders from Mississippi, and the Mississippi Plan. The curriculum is intended to be flexible in its approach to better meet the needs of educators. The curriculum along with the film will be made available to educators as a free, open-source resource. Educators can use the curriculum in its entirety or can pick and choose between the lesson plans to fit the scope and time constraints of their individual classrooms.

Students learn more about the current conflict in Syria, and consider different points of view about how the U.S. should respond.

Students think about the idea of "home" and what it means to be a refugee, learn about the refugee crisis in Syria, and hear the voices of Syrian refugees.

Another in a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. (See "The Constitutional Amendment," no. 1866-5.) The poster specifically characterizes Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer's platform as "for the White Man," represented here by the idealized head of a young man. (Clymer ran on a white-supremacy platform.) In contrast a stereotyped black head represents Clymer's opponent James White Geary's platform, "for the Negro." Below the portraits are the words, "Read the platforms. Congress says, The Negro must be allowed to vote, or the states be punished." Above is an explanation: "Every Radical in Congress Voted for Negro Suffrage. Every Radical in the Pennsylvania Senate Voted for Negro Suffrage. Stevens [Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens], Forney [John W. Forney, editor of the " Philadelphia Press":], and Cameron [Pennsylvania Republican boss Simon Cameron] are for Negro Suffrage; they are all Candidates for the United States Senate. No Radical Newspaper Opposes Negro Suffrage. "Geary" said in a Speech at Harrisburg, 11th of August, 1866--"There Can Be No Possible Objection to Negro Suffrage." |Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1866-8.

Students will learn the significance of the U.S. Constitution and Constitution Day, with a focus on how the census is called for in the Constitution and why it is conducted every 10 years.

Originally published as American Government and Politics in the Information Age in 2011 as CC BY-NC-SA.
Updated by James J. Tuite in 2020. This is a textbook for the first part of an introductory course on the American political process. Teaches the structure, operation, and process of national, state, and local governments.

Video lectures available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCInj8bmD5BUa9UnNrtAblznm6skFNZJh

This book is written for you – students early in college – to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society.

In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents say and how our political institutions were formed. Second, and as important, we season the book with questions for you to investigate and learn concerning who has been excluded and who has benefited from the political structures of the United States. We will examine the contradictions and tensions that erupt, and how social movements have transformed our political landscape. We offer a range of questions/assignments that will allow you to help us keep this book up to date.

You will read, across time, tensions between the federal and state governments, between individual and collective rights, between those with power and those without, and you will notice when and for whom rights have been protected by our government and when and for whom rights have been trampled. We will explore the historical context that informs significant political movements and structures of the present. This is history riddled with racism, xenophobia, sexism and imperialism, and also a vibrant history of struggle where groups of people imagine, fight for, and often achieve a more equitable society.

As producers of knowledge with a particular focus on social (in)justice, racial, gendered and transnational journeys, Guttman Community College scholar-activists have constructed a new digital canon that offers New Yorkers the opportunity to contribute testimonies of tumultuous times. Curated by Dr. Samuel Finesurrey, Guttman undergraduates Elsy Rosario, Tigida Fadiga, Luz Hidalgo, Phisarys Sidemion, and Sadaf Majeed and digitized by Guttman staff members Joanna Wisniewski, Ivan Mora, and Kristina Jiana Quiles, this collection democratizes the production of knowledge by empowering community college students, largely deriving from immigrant households, to shape the narratives told about their communities and their generation. Organized into five themes, with testimonies gathered in six languages, this archive documents a diverse set of New York experiences. Funded by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Mellon Foundation, this exhibition helps us rethink struggles and movements of the past and present, to unearth the human networks that carry all New Yorkers in difficult times.

Watch this video summarizing the activities at the White House during the week of July 12, 2013. Events included the second annual kid's state dinner with young chefs from each state and territory.

This is the blog for the White House of the United States during the presidency of Barack Obama.