Populism, United States agrarian movement of the late 19th century that developed mainly in the area from Texas to the Dakotas and grew into a Farmer-Labor political coalition. The populist movement began during the economic depression of the 1870s, when there was a sharp decline in the income of farmers at a time when their living and operating costs were rising. The farmers began to organize early in the 1870s, and, during the ensuing two decades, large numbers of them joined such bodies as the National Grange and the Farmers' Alliances. The latter were cooperative organizations that hoped to lower farmers' costs by selling supplies at reduced prices, loaning money at rates below those charged by banks, building warehouses to store c

rops until prices became favorable, and taking political action to achieve these goals. Alliances were popular in the South, where many farmers existed in an almost endless cycle of debt. In some southern states, alliances even embraced black farmers, who had been ostracized from political life there since Reconstruction. By 1891 the movement had gained sufficient strength to warrant a national political party. The alliances joined with the Knights of Labor and other groups to form the People's Party, whose members were called Populists.

Despite the brevity of its existence, the Populist movement exercised a profound influence on subsequent U.S. political life; almost all the original Populist demands, which at one time were widely viewed as radical and contradictory to America's free enterprise system, were eventually enacted into law.

The period made memorable by Theodore Roosevelt began in the 1901 and lasted for the almost twelve years during which he and William H. Taft were in the White House. The era was one of vigorous effort to remodel the structure of government, to further democratize its processes, and to make it an arbiter of social justice. For close to eight years the exuberant style of Roosevelt gave a new meaning to the presidency. His hand-picked successor, Taft, although possessing none of the Roosevelt style, did achieve many of the widely demanded reforms of the period.

In 1913, after sixteen years of Republican rule, Democrat Woodrow Wilson was in the White House. Wilson had a strong sense of right and wrong, which he applied to the handling of domestic matters and international rel

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