Robert C. McMath
![American Populism: A Social History 1877-1898 (American Century Series) Robert C. McMath]( "American Populism: A Social History 1877-1898 (American Century Series) Robert C. McMath")
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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 19th Century -> Reconstruction
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Excellent overview of Populism 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
The author identifies "producerism" and "antimonopolism" as the core aspects of Populist (agrarian) thought. These themes extolled the virtues of the independent working man, fully able to produce his own and society's well-being without being dependent upon or under the control of others. It is doubtful that this idyllic state has ever been achieved in America, but there is no doubt that in the 1870s and 80s small farmers in the Plains states and in the South suffered from the vicissitudes of both natural and economic forces undermining any sense of being in control of their economic destinies.This book explores the actions of besieged rural Americans, first through cooperative efforts based on dense community ties, and then through political efforts, to counter the forces of industrialization. It is a complex story involving a variety of agrarian and labor organizations, though dominated by the National Farmers' Alliance with its beginnings in western Texas in 1878 and to some extent the Knights of Labor, ranging from the far West, through the Plains and the Midwest, and through the entire southern belt. Agrarian reformers were forever in a contest with the forces of orthodoxy from community values to the agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties; a contest that they would eventually lose.
The author admits to drawing upon the vast work of historians concerning Populism or agrarianism. The book is somewhat complementary to the work of Lawrence Goodwyn, author of the "Democratic Promise. He finds little agreement with those who view Populists as reactionaries, unwilling to accept the demands of progress.
While Goodwyn finds the core of Populism to be located in the southern Farmers' Alliance and is somewhat dismissive of agrarian movements in other regions, McMath is more generous in his estimation of the forces of reform in the western and northern plains. In addition, he pays more attention to organizations and movements that were forerunners to the agrarian movement. They both agree that the demise of the Alliance and the Knights of Labor eroded a base of activism and undermined the chances that the Populist Party could succeed.
Despite its relative brevity, this book is a highly readable and insightful overview of the Populist movement. It is an excellent introduction to Populism. And it contains an extensive bibliographical essay for further reading.
Editorial Review:
The grass-roots Populist movement that swept rural America a century ago millions of farmers and clusters of non-farmers into a powerful crusade to reshape the nation's political economy by ushering in a "cooperative commonwealth" to reverse the growth of America's monopoly capitalism. McMath crisply interprets the development of the Populist crusade from its early beginnings in the turbulent 1870s to its ultimate demise, and places it in a larger context as he compares it to later, parallel movements in the Great Plains and Canada.
