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Curriculum
Each of the 23 cases — spanning U.S. history as well as ancient Athens — is accompanied by a detailed teaching plan, outlining a sequence of questions and a scheme for organizing student responses, to structure the discussion.
Teachers can supplement a course with a few cases, or build a whole syllabus around them. Each case provides broad coverage of a historical period, and experienced teachers often find that a single case can replace an entire textbook chapter.
AP Course Alignments
More than a third of partner teachers use cases in AP courses. Many cases align naturally with AP U.S. History and AP U.S. Government content.
Origins of Democracy
401 BCE
The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Athenian Democracy (401 BCE)
Sample question: After democracy has failed twice, can it be rebuilt to last?
This case surveys the dawn of democracy in Classical Athens during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. It describes the origins and development of Athenian democracy, traces the city’s rise to prominence, and examines some of the most important challenges the city faced during this period, including the Peloponnesian War with Sparta (431-404 BCE) and two democratic breakdowns (in 411 and 404 BCE). The case ends soon after democracy was restored following the second breakdown, as Athenians are exploring how best to reform their political institutions and rebuild their city.
Coverage: 6th and 5th centuries BCE; origins of Athenian democracy; direct democracy; institutions of governance (including Athenian Assembly, Council, and courts); relative prosperity of Greek city-states; sources of Athenian innovation; the Delian League and Athenian empire; the Peloponnesian War; democratic breakdown; restoration of democracy.
Founding Era
1780s – 1800s
James Madison, the ‘Federal Negative,’ and the Making of the U.S. Constitution (1787)
Sample question: Should the new national government have the power to veto state laws?
This case begins with the American Revolution and concludes at the Constitutional Convention. It describes the many challenges faced by the United States under the Articles of Confederation—including debt, contraction of trade, recession, inflation, and Shays’ Rebellion—and how those problems informed key features of the U.S. Constitution.
Coverage: 1763 – 1787; American Revolution; Articles of Confederation; the ‘Critical Period’; Shays’ Rebellion; James Madison’s political theories; majority rule vs. tyranny of the majority; dangers of small republics; “expanding the sphere”; the Constitutional Convention; origins of American federalism, Articles I-III of the U.S. Constitution.
In Detail: Debt and Paper Money in Rhode Island (1786)
Sample question: Is Rhode Island helping or hurting its economy by printing paper money?
This short (four-page) case uses an economic dispute between two men in 1780s Rhode Island to offer a more concrete demonstration of how rapid inflation affected debtors and creditors during the Critical Period. It is meant as a supplement to the “James Madison” case above, rather than a standalone case.
Coverage: Colonial Era – 1786; inflation; debt; paper money.
Battle Over a Bank: Defining the Limits of Federal Power Under a New Constitution (1791)
Sample question: Does the Constitution allow the federal government to create a national bank?
This case covers the first term of George Washington’s presidency and the push to ratify the Bill of Rights. It focuses especially on Alexander Hamilton’s proposal for a national bank and the question of whether Congress should have powers beyond those explicitly listed in the Constitution.
Coverage: 1787 – 1791; President Washington; Alexander Hamilton; James Madison; Thomas Jefferson; Federalists vs. Antifederalists; Bill of Rights; implied vs. explicit powers; national debt; First Bank of the United States.
Antebellum & Civil War
1830s – 1865
Democracy, Sovereignty, and the Struggle over Cherokee Removal (1836)
Sample question: Should the Cherokee Nation accept a treaty that gives up its territory for $5 million and new land farther west?
This case describes how the United States (and its colonial precursors) set policies with respect to Native Americans, from first contact through the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Much of the case is told from the perspective of the Cherokee Nation, as its various political factions lobby for and against the Treaty of New Echota, which, if ratified by the U.S. Senate, would remove the Cherokee from their native lands.
Coverage: Colonial Era – 1836; history of the Cherokee Nation; President Andrew Jackson; Indian Removal; Trail of Tears.
Banking and Politics in Antebellum New York (1838)
Sample question: Should New York abandon its established banking system for a new experiment in free banking?
This case looks closely at state-level politics and the relationship between political parties and banking in early 19th century New York, including the formation of the modern political party under Martin Van Buren. The case culminates in a decision over whether the state legislature should continue to control the creation of each new bank in the state—through the so-called bank chartering system—or relinquish this authority and the immense political power it entailed.
Coverage: 1784 – 1838; formation of the Democratic Party; political career of Martin Van Buren; bank chartering system; Panic of 1837; Democrats vs. Whigs; free banking.
Property, Suffrage, and the “Right of Revolution” in Rhode Island, 1842
Sample question: Do the people have the right to replace their government — by force, if necessary?
This case explores the development of voting rights in the antebellum United States, with a particular focus on a populist movement to grant universal white male suffrage in 1840s Rhode Island. The case raises questions about the nature of voting rights and whether citizens have a right to overthrow a government that they believe does not represent them.
Coverage: Colonial era – 1842; colonial charters; voting rights and franchise requirements in the early United States; populism; industrialization and urbanization; Rhode Island; suffrage movement; Dorr Rebellion; President John Tyler.
Debt and Democracy: The New York Constitutional Convention of 1846
Sample question: Should the state constitution be rewritten to prevent lawmakers from running budget deficits?
This case offers an overview of major infrastructure spending and fiscal crises in New York State in the first half of the 1800s, and it describes how reformers sought to address the issue of mounting public debt in the 1840s, following the Panic of 1837. In particular, it focuses on the state’s Constitutional Convention of 1846, where delegates considered an anti-debt amendment that would sharply limit the state’s ability to borrow money, including for infrastructure such as the Erie Canal, but would also include a democratic escape hatch, allowing the electorate to override strict restrictions on borrowing through a popular vote.
Coverage: 1800 – 1846; Panic of 1837; infrastructure and “internal improvements”; public debt; New York State; constitutional conventions; Barnburners; Erie Canal; direct democracy.
The Struggle Over Public Education in Early America (1851)
Sample question: Should the government make schools free for all children in New York?
This case addresses the topic of public education in the United States through the early 1850s. It considers the rise of the Common School Movement over the first half of the nineteenth century, including the ideas of Horace Mann and the impact of immigration and religious diversity, and it culminates in a fiercely contested decision over tax-funded schools in New York State in 1851.
Coverage: Colonial Era – 1851; public education; Common School Movement; Horace Mann; Massachusetts; New York State; naturalization of immigrants; religious diversity; Second Great Awakening.
A Nation Divided: The United States and the Challenge of Secession (1861)
Sample question: How should President Lincoln respond to Southern secession?
This case provides a broad overview of the economic, political, and moral issues that eventually led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Students explore how these issues ensured sectional division between North and South, and they ultimately consider the options confronting President Lincoln as he decides how to respond to Southern secession.
Coverage: 1787 – 1861; sectional divide; slavery; slavery and the Constitution; rise of “King Cotton”; John Calhoun; Henry Clay; Missouri Compromise; Nullification Crisis; Compromise of 1850; Fugitive Slave Act; ‘Bleeding Kansas’; Dred Scott decision; Abolitionists; rise of the Republican Party; Lincoln/Douglas Debates; tariffs; Election of 1860; Southern Secession; Fort Sumter.
Reconstruction & Gilded Age
1865 – 1900
Reconstruction A: The Crisis of 1877
Sample question: Should the Republican candidate for president, Rutherford Hayes, accept a deal that would end Reconstruction while delivering the presidency to him?
This case provides a general overview of Reconstruction, starting with President Lincoln’s Reconstruction Acts passed during the Civil War. It details the experience of former slaves in the South as they seek to exercise their rights as equal citizens in the face of pervasive racism and organized violence. The case culminates with a decision facing Democratic and Republican leaders about whether to accept a “bargain” that would effectively end Reconstruction following the contested presidential election of 1876.
Coverage: 1863 – 1877; Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan; President Andrew Johnson; Radical Reconstruction; Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments; Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875; Freedman’s Bureau; White Leagues and the Ku Klux Klan; ‘Redeemer’ Democrats; 1876 election; Compromise of 1877.
Reconstruction B: Jury Rights in Virginia, 1877–1880
Sample question: Should the federal government intervene in a state murder trial, overriding state control of jury selection?
This case continues to examine some of the central issues of Reconstruction by focusing on a racially-charged murder trial that took place in Virginia shortly after Reconstruction formally ended, and that ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The prosecution of two black defendants before all-white juries at the state level—and the unprecedented intervention of a federal judge—provoked questions about the role of juries in American democracy and the balance between state and federal power on the critical issue of black civil rights following Reconstruction. [This case is an abridged and slightly revised version of an earlier case titled “Race, Justice, and the Jury System in Postbellum Virginia.” The full case is also available to teachers who wish to use it.]
Coverage: 1877 – 1880; post-bellum South; rise of segregated public schools; jury system; race and racism in the criminal justice system; federalism; U.S. Supreme Court; Rives v. Virginia; Ex Parte Virginia; origins of Jim Crow.
An Australian Ballot for California? (1891)
Sample question: Should California adopt the secret ballot?
This case describes how elections worked in the late 19th century, when “political machines” wielded enormous influence over voting at the local level and when casting a vote on election day was a very public affair. It addresses the many efforts of Progressive reformers to fight electoral corruption, and it hinges on a decision of whether to adopt an “Australian Ballot,” or secret ballot, in California in 1891.
Coverage: 1830s – 1891; machine politics; Tammany Hall; political corruption; history of voting; transformation of American elections; ticket system; Australian Ballot; electoral reform.
Progressive Era & New Deal
1900 – 1934
Labor, Capital, and Government: The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
Sample question: How should the federal government balance the competing interests of labor and capital in an essential American industry?
This case explores how the federal government, under President Theodore Roosevelt, sought to adjudicate between the interests of capital and labor during the Second Industrial Revolution. In particular, it focuses on the federal government’s intervention in a major coal miners’ strike in Pennsylvania in 1902.
Coverage: 1790s – 1902; President Theodore Roosevelt; rise of labor unions (history of organized labor); Anthracite Coal Strike; United Mine Workers; Knights of Labor; American Federation of Labor; John Mitchell; Samuel Gompers; Mark Hanna; National Civic Federation.
The Jungle and the Debate over Federal Meat Inspection in 1906
Sample question: How should the federal government regulate the meat industry, if at all?
This case explores the power of the press in American democracy by examining the role of muckraking journalism in the Progressive Era. In particular, it traces how Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, an explosive but unorthodox piece of investigative journalism presented in the form of a novel, almost overnight transformed the political environment surrounding federal regulation of the powerful meat-packing industry.
Coverage: 1850 – 1906; power of the press; muckraking; antitrust; Sherman Act; Interstate Commerce Commission; meatpacking; railroads; regulation; regulatory capture; interest groups; food safety; Upton Sinclair; President Theodore Roosevelt; Meat Inspection Act; Food and Drug Act.
The Battle over the Initiative and Referendum in Massachusetts (1918)
Sample question: Should Massachusetts adopt “direct democracy”?
This case describes how Progressive Era reformers convinced numerous states and municipalities to adopt the initiative and referendum, and how these reforms changed the landscape of American democracy. It focuses on the particular example of Massachusetts, where statewide adoption of the initiative and referendum faced staunch opposition in 1918.
Coverage: 1890 – 1918; Progressive Era political reforms; direct democracy; initiative, referendum, and recall; the “Oregon System”; political corruption; “the Octopus”; Henry Cabot Lodge.
Regulating Radio in the Age of Broadcasting (1927)
Sample question: How much control should the federal government exercise over the airwaves?
This case describes the debate in the 1920s over how the federal government should address the rapid development of a new communications technology with major implications for American democracy: broadcast radio. In particular, it focuses on President Calvin Coolidge’s decision of whether to sign a 1927 bill that would establish a Federal Radio Commission with the power to license radio stations.
Coverage: 1890 – 1927; President Coolidge; radio; political significance of mass communication technology; regulation; interest groups; Herbert Hoover.
The Pecora Hearings (1932–34)
Sample question: Who should the Congress hold responsible for the financial crisis that started in 1929?
This case focuses on a much heralded (and widely covered) Congressional investigation into the banking sector that took place in the depths of the Great Depression, amid intense public suspicion and anger toward leading financial institutions. It covers the first two years of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, including passage of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act in 1933, and culminates in a decision of whether to adopt the National Securities Exchange Act in 1934.
Coverage: 1910s – 1934; stock market crash of 1929; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Great Depression; banking; stock market manipulation; Congressional investigation; financial regulation; Ferdinand Pecora; J.P. Morgan and Company; New York Stock Exchange.
Civil Rights & Contemporary Era
1965 – Present
Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Black Voting Rights (1965)
Sample question: On March 9, 1965, should Dr. King lead marchers across the Pettus Bridge or turn the march around?
This case traces the long history of black disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States, from the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. It describes the various strategies employed by civil rights activists, with a special emphasis on the civil disobedience protests of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and culminates in Martin Luther King’s decision of whether to lead protesters across Pettus Bridge on the famous protest march starting in Selma, Alabama on March 9, 1965.
Coverage: 1865 – 1965; racial segregation; Jim Crow; black disenfranchisement; poll taxes; literacy tests; white primaries; grandfather clauses; NAACP; Plessy v. Ferguson; Brown v. Board of Education; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Civil Rights Movement; Freedom Rides; Children’s March; President John F. Kennedy; President Lyndon B. Johnson; Civil Rights Act of 1964; Selma; Montgomery; Birmingham; Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Democracy and Women’s Rights in America: The Fight over the ERA (1982)
Sample question: Should Florida lawmakers vote to add the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?
This case addresses the topic of women’s rights in the United States from the American Revolution through the 20th century, including the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the rise of feminism. It introduces the principal women’s rights activists who pushed for a proposed “Equal Rights Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution, as well as prominent conservative activists who opposed the ERA, and it explores the ensuing nationwide debate that came to a head in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Coverage: American Revolution – 1982; women’s rights; American Anti-Slavery Society; women’s suffrage movement; American Equal Rights Association; National Woman Suffrage Association; American Woman Suffrage Association; National Woman’s Party; Lucy Stone; Susan B. Anthony; Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Alice Paul; 20th Amendment; National League of Women’s Voters; feminism; Betty Friedan; Phyllis Schlafly; Equal Rights Amendment.
Manufacturing Constituencies: Race and Redistricting in North Carolina, 1993
Sample question: Is it constitutional to draw district lines to create “majority-minority districts”?
This case explores the history of redistricting and gerrymandering in the United States, with a particular focus on how redistricting has affected the voting strength of African American communities in the South. The case ends in 1993, when the Supreme Court had to determine whether North Carolina’s congressional district plan, which allegedly grouped voters by race, was a good-faith effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act or an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Coverage: 1787 – 1993; redistricting; alternative voting schemes; origins of gerrymandering; black representation and disenfranchisement; Voting Rights Act of 1965; “one person, one vote” rule; federal “preclearance”; majority-minority districts; race-based redistricting; Supreme Court; North Carolina.
Leadership and Independence at the Federal Reserve (2009)
Sample question: How independent should the Federal Reserve be in trying to address an economic collapse?
This case traces the long history of central banking in the United States and especially the development and transformation of the Federal Reserve, from its creation in 1913 to its unprecedented intervention in the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009. The case confronts some of the main arguments for and against the idea that monetary policy ought to be “independent” of democratic politics, and focuses particularly on efforts to “reign in” the Federal Reserve amidst the tumultuous financial events of 2007-2009.
Coverage: 1791 – 2009; First and Second Banks of the United States; Jackson’s Bank War; history of financial crises; Panic of 1907; National Monetary Commission; Federal Reserve; monetary policy and democratic accountability; central bank independence; Nelson Aldrich; Carter Glass; Paul Volcker; Alan Greenspan; Ben Bernanke; Financial Crisis of 2007-2009.
Citizens United and Corporate Speech (2010)
Sample question: Should corporations have the same free speech rights as individual citizens?
This case presents excerpts from the landmark Supreme Court decision Citizens United, which determined that laws restricting independent corporate campaign expenditures violated the First Amendment. The majority opinion, the concurrences, and the dissent are presented in the case, and together they offer an overview of the facts of the case, a full century of federal law regulating corporate spending on elections, and key arguments on both sides of the case.
Coverage: 1867-2010 (with focus on 2007-2010); history of campaign finance laws; First Amendment; Political Action Committees; money in politics; corporate speech; Supreme Court; Citizens United opinions.