The 1888 U.S. Tariff Debate: Congressional Record, Press Coverage, and Political Cartoons

The Tariff Question in the Gilded Age: The Great Debate of 1888 is a collection of historical texts compiled by Joanne Reitano of Molloy College. It focuses on the 1888 election year debate over the Mills Bill for tariff reduction, analyzing the Congressional Record, press coverage, academic literature, and political cartoons. The dataset is sourced from the paperswithcode platform.

Use Cases

• Analyzing political rhetoric and framing based on Congressional Record transcripts.
• Studying media bias and public discourse based on press coverage of the tariff debate.
• Examining visual political communication based on political cartoons from the period.
• Modeling historical shifts in public opinion based on polemical and academic literature.

Strengths

• Focuses on a specific, well-documented historical event (the 1888 tariff debate).
• Blends multiple source types (Congressional Record, press, cartoons, literature) for multi-faceted analysis.
• Authored by a named academic researcher (Joanne Reitano) with institutional affiliation (Molloy College).

Limitations

• Row count, file formats, and column-level documentation are unknown.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Data may reflect the temporal and source bias inherent to the paperswithcode platform's historical focus.

Provenance

Source

Joanne Reitano / Molloy College, via paperswithcode.

Collection Method

Likely compiled from historical archives including the Congressional Record, period newspapers, and political cartoons.

Time Range

Centered on the 1888 election year and the Gilded Age period.

Geography

United States.