Who is the William Jennings Bryan?

Question

focus: What was their occupation, role, contribution?
How did they feel about the changes facing America?
What is their "passion"?
What are their beliefs?
Were they considered "progressive?"
How do they view the role of government?
How do they perceive America at the turn of the century?
Why were they criticized?
What labels were placed upon them by others?
Please answer these question.

Answer 1

Boy is that a loaded question. They wrote entire books about the man and still only scratched the surface. If this is a homework question, then your answer is that he was a progressive lawyer and devoutly religious man who ran for the US Senate. He was passionate about the Bible and the preservation of religion in the United States. He ran for president representing two different parties against William McKinley and still lost. He was a passionate advocate for peace, prohibition and social change. He advocated several social changes that we now call "civil rights", including women's suffrage. He saw the role of government as protecting the rights of the common man and improving the lot of every person's life by lifting up the people on the lowest rungs of society with education, social welfare and universal education. They were strongly against monopolies and large corporations and supported President Roosevelt in applying the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up major monopolies like Standard Oil. They were criticized because they couldn't pay for all of their programs and were pushing too hard for change from a strong federal government and were not protecting the idea of "States' Rights".

He is probably best remembered for being the "guest prosecutor" of the Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 (see the movie "Inherit the Wind" if you need to know more about it...but basically it was the State of Tennessee prosecuting a science teacher for trying to teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution instead of teaching biblical creationism). He died 5 days after the trial ended.

Hope it helps...you could do an entire term paper on him and still only scratch the surface.

Answer 2

William Jennings Bryan was a Nebraska senator, and Democratic nominee for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908. He did support some legislation for farmers, such as more silver in the currency, rather than gold. It is late and am tired so I will leave to others to fill in details. The real reformers of Bryan's era were Populists. Bryan would be better characterized as a fairly conservative Democrat, but in not in Wall Street's pocket, as were the Republicans of the era. In 1896 the Populist party also nominated the Democratic nominee Bryan for president. Because of his conservatism most Populist, who advocated real change for an industrial society gone amuck, probably regretted having done so. You really need to separte Bryan from Populist reformers, such as Tom Watson, Ignatius Donnelly, Jerry Simpson, and Mary Elizabeth Lease.

The Populist I mentioned above and even Bryan were subjected to vicious, unfair attacks as Radicals. The Progressives, including Presidents T. Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson ended up enacting much of the Populist agenda. The Populist saw there needed to be some economic reform, some taxation on billionaires and millionaires, who paid not a penny in taxes, safety for labor requirements, women voting, the election of U.S. senators by popular votes, and other sensible reforms. In short, I do not feel the Populists were uncouth, agrarian radicals, but shrewd and yet humane politically.

Answer 3

Yahoo did censor the be conscious. at the same time as i've got not encountered that distinctive quote before, it would desire to be available. what's important to rigidity it rather is you hit upon it outrageous in the present day -- over a century later. lower back in Bryan's era, white-supremicist racism grew to become into undemanding interior the Western worldwide (not in basic terms the U.S.). you're living in a historic context after WWII and the combat against Nazi racism, the Civil Rights circulate, and the multicultural ameliorations of the Nineteen Nineties. That historic context affected what values look suited to mainstream society in the present day, of which you're a factor. yet those activities hadn't got here approximately yet in Bryan's time, and the multicultural values you're taking with no attention in the present day have been nonetheless under fierce debate interior the numerous years before WWII. in basic terms a small sort of racial reformers (to boot as African human beings) could have chanced in this quote objectionable previous to the WWII era. it could have regarded generic, even relaxing to a super majority of white human beings. remember than interior the 1910s-20s, the KKK had reemerged as a commonly used political organisation counting many senators and governors between its club (before it collapsed interior the previous due Nineteen Twenties under a cloud of corruption scandals). To get a feeling of mainstream racial values of the early 1900s, watch specifically circumstances the 1916 classic movie start OF A united states of america -- you will see why this quote attributed to Bryan does not have regarded outrageous to the historic context wherein that movie grew to become into made.

Answer 4

I have a feeling you want some help with homework!

Well, here's a few tidbits, and a source-go look up the rest for yourself.

William Jennings Bryan was an orator, a lawyer, and three times candidate for President of the United States.

Check out the Cross of Gold Speech to find his passion

Check out Progressive Movement to find out if he was progressive.

Check out the Scopes Monkey Trial to find out some of his beliefs.

Answer 5

Who is this "they" you speak of?