1. Agrarian Protest, 1867-1900 I.Introduction-- Free Labor in the Gilded Age II.Economic Currents A.Transformation of Agriculture B.The New Corporate Power C. The Weak State III.Political Responses A.Grange B.The Greenback Party C.The People’s Party IV.The Populist Crusade A.Proposals B.Victories C.Disappointments D.Evaluation

2. Old Farming Free Land –Homestead Act, 1862 Local Market Hand Labor

3. New Farming

4. Railroad and Grain Elevators Central Storage for transport Owned by railroads and shippers Monopolies

5. The Grange Founded 1869 800,000 members (1875) Railroad regulations

6. The People’s Prairie Tradition of political radicalism in Midwest and Plains farming regions –New England abolitionism –German republicanism –Scandinavian socialism Populist Convention, Callaway, Nebraska, 1896

7. Southern Populism Tenant farming (“sharecropping ”)

8. Racial Unity “You are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both.” –Tom Watson, 1892

9. Western Miners Silver Currency Disappointment Idaho Miners in the 1880s with RR financier Jay Gould

10. Workers Panic of 1893 Coxey’s Army, 1895 20 to 25% Unemployment

11. The Great Commoner and the People’s Joan of Arc William Jennings Bryan, 1880Mary Elizabeth Lease

12. Gold and Silver Concerns: –Money Supply –Patchy prosperity –Concentration of Wealth

13. Tariffs v. Taxes Assessments on Imported Goods –1860-- 20% –1880-- 40% –1890-- 45% –1894-- 48% –1932-- 59% –2001-- 4.6% (MFN); 0% for N. America

14. Populist Program Interstate Commerce Act (1887) Sherman Anti-trust Act (1890) Federal Income Tax (1894) Silver Coinage at 16 to 1 ratio (inflation) Government ownership of telegraph and RR Postal Savings Banks Reclamation of RR land Secret Ballot Referendum Direct Election of Senators Anti-Imperialism

15. A Nation Divided

16. Pathologies Political Anti-Semitism –Myth of the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy –Passion Play Metaphor

17. Changing Fusion –Populists become faction in Democratic Party –Lose radical edge Turn to demagoguery –Once an egalitarian, Watson rages against blacks, Socialists, Catholic, and Jews Statue of Tom Watson, GA state capitol

18. Evaluation Cranky, crazy, and reactionary OR Idealistic, democratic, egalitarian, and visionary?