Author: O. Gene Clanton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
Because Kansas has been called "the leading Midwestern Populist state," and the Midwestern phrase was the principle one of this significant movement in American history, this first comprehensive history of the Kansas People's party, its leaders, and their thoughts and actions is an important addition to Populist historiography. Through this study of the leadership, as well as a complete and personal background analysis of the Populist and Republican members of five Kansas legislatures, the author helps to place Populism within its proper historical context.Although Kansas Populism is shown to have had a retrogressive strain, the pervasive force of the movement is revealed as a constructive and progressive response to the technological achievements that had revolutionized agriculture and industry over the course of the nineteenth century. Their answers were not always commendable, but the Populists were the first political activists to come to grips in an effective manner with the problems created by the continuing economic revolution that uniquely characterizes modern history, and they were "intent on demonstrating, apparently, that the purification of politics was not an iridescent dream." In the dialogue which they conducted, in the program which they advance, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that continues in our own time.Undertaken with the objective of testing recent controversial interpretations of the Populist movement, this book, according to one reader, "far surpasses" studies of Populism in other states "done long ago and innocent of modern methods." It contains passages "almost epigrammatic in their perceptiveness" and is notable for the author's "fairness in dealing with the evidence." In fact, the breadth of research and the extensive annotation and bibliographical material included make this volume an important source in itself.
Author: Jeffrey Ostler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Ostler shows that economic conditions alone cannot explain why populism flourished or foundered. Through a study of populism in Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, Ostler demonstrates that the strength or weakness of the two dominant political parties within a state had a significant effect on the success of a third party challenge.
Author: Walter Nugent
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022605411X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
A political movement rallies against underregulated banks, widening gaps in wealth, and gridlocked governments. Sound familiar? More than a century before Occupy Wall Street, the People’s Party of the 1890s was organizing for change. They were the original source of the term “populism,” and a catalyst for the later Progressive Era and New Deal. Historians wrote approvingly of the Populists up into the 1950s. But with time and new voices, led by historian Richard Hofstadter, the Populists were denigrated, depicted as demagogic, conspiratorial, and even anti-Semitic. In a landmark study, Walter Nugent set out to uncover the truth of populism, focusing on the most prominent Populist state, Kansas. He focused on primary sources, looking at the small towns and farmers that were the foundation of the movement. The result, The Tolerant Populists, was the first book-length, source-based analysis of the Populists. Nugent’s work sparked a movement to undo the historical revisionism and ultimately found itself at the center of a controversy that has been called “one of the bloodiest episodes in American historiography.” This timely re-release of The Tolerant Populists comes as the term finds new currency—and new scorn—in modern politics. A definitive work on populism, it serves as a vivid example of the potential that political movements and popular opinion can have to change history and affect our future.
Author: Scott G. McNall
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226561264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382
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Book Description
Index and bibliography included.
Author: Walter T. K. Nugent
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284
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Book Description
Author: Thomas Frank
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1429900326
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340
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Book Description
One of "our most insightful social observers"* cracks the great political mystery of our time: how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank turns his eye on what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"—the populist revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment. The high point of that backlash is the Republican Party's success in building the most unnatural of alliances: between blue-collar Midwesterners and Wall Street business interests, workers and bosses, populists and right-wingers. In asking "what 's the matter with Kansas?"—how a place famous for its radicalism became one of the most conservative states in the union—Frank, a native Kansan and onetime Republican, seeks to answer some broader American riddles: Why do so many of us vote against our economic interests? Where's the outrage at corporate manipulators? And whatever happened to middle-American progressivism? The questions are urgent as well as provocative. Frank answers them by examining pop conservatism—the bestsellers, the radio talk shows, the vicious political combat—and showing how our long culture wars have left us with an electorate far more concerned with their leaders' "values" and down-home qualities than with their stands on hard questions of policy. A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What's the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People. *Los Angeles Times
Author: O. Gene Clanton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780897452762
Category : Kansas
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
O. Gene Clanton believes that Populism remains relevant. He holds a lasting hope for the movement and calls its aspirations "an ideal of human rights, not just for the favored few but for all Americans." In his extensively updated revision of Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men, he depicts the rise and fall of Kansas Populism within general and national political contexts, and includes some previously unpublished material on its intellectual and political background. Clanton also furnishes thoughtful biographies of Populist leaders like Annie Diggs, Frank Doster, Mary Lease, William Peffer, and Jerry Simpson. "Populists and Populism aimed at implementing the nation's unfulfilled democratic ideals in the new industrial age. The movement's leaders concerned themselves with that challenge, and in the dialogue they conducted, in the program they advanced, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that should continue as long as most Americans subscribe to the nation's great democratic ideals. To be sure, it was not Populist principles that were retrogressive. What made them appear so to an influential segment of American society was the fact that they were championed in the name of the farmers and laborers and in terms of the old producer-class ideology that had so long associated strictly with agrarian radicalism."--O. Gene Clanton
Author: William Alfred Peffer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Peffer's memoir describes the development of Populism, the political maneuverings and campaign practices of the People's Party, the effect of the famous silver movement on the critical election of 1896, and the behind-the-scenes conflict that ultimately led to the dissolution of America's last great third party.
Author: H. Edward Flentje
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803220286
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
The rich history of Kansas politics continues to generate an abundant literature. The state?s beginning as ?Bleeding Kansas? followed by Prohibition, populism, the Progressive Era, and the Dust Bowl, through to the present day, have given local and national writers and scholars an intriguing topic for exploration. While historians and biographers shed light on pieces of this history, journalists focus on current political affairs in the state. Rarely, however, are past and present connected to fully illuminate an understanding of Kansas politics and government. ø This volume uses the prism of political cultures to interpret Kansas politics and disclose the intimate connections between the state?s past and its current politics. The framework of political cultures evolves from underlying political preferences for liberty, order, and equality, and these preferences form the basis for the active political cultures of individualism, hierarchy, and egalitarianism. This comprehensive examination of Kansas political institutions argues that Kansas politics, historically and presently, may best be understood as a clash of political cultures.
Author: Walter Nugent
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226054087
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A political movement rallies against underregulated banks, widening gaps in wealth, and gridlocked governments. Sound familiar? More than a century before Occupy Wall Street, the People’s Party of the 1890s was organizing for change. They were the original source of the term “populism,” and a catalyst for the later Progressive Era and New Deal. Historians wrote approvingly of the Populists up into the 1950s. But with time and new voices, led by historian Richard Hofstadter, the Populists were denigrated, depicted as demagogic, conspiratorial, and even anti-Semitic. In a landmark study, Walter Nugent set out to uncover the truth of populism, focusing on the most prominent Populist state, Kansas. He focused on primary sources, looking at the small towns and farmers that were the foundation of the movement. The result, The Tolerant Populists, was the first book-length, source-based analysis of the Populists. Nugent’s work sparked a movement to undo the historical revisionism and ultimately found itself at the center of a controversy that has been called “one of the bloodiest episodes in American historiography.” This timely re-release of The Tolerant Populists comes as the term finds new currency—and new scorn—in modern politics. A definitive work on populism, it serves as a vivid example of the potential that political movements and popular opinion can have to change history and affect our future.
