populist movement

A detailed Summary of populist movement

The Populist movement has been unwaveringly crowned the single most massive democratic movement in the history of America. It represents a legion of millions of Southern and Western farmers during the last several decades of the nineteenth century. This massive group was a revolt against the two major political parties and the exclusive, oppressive industrialist notion they represented. One of the major works discussing this movement was Lawrence Goodwyn's Democratic Promise, and in it's condensed form, The Populist Movement: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. This exhaustive study covered the movement from its inception through its flourish to its inevitable demise, as many other types of literature discussed here attempt to do. This essay will explore the complexities found in the movement in light of the arguments and suggestions posed by Goodwyn and others.

The Populist movement represented a revolt against the problems of industrialism. It was concentrated on an interest in "money power". The People's Party viewed the old political parties as "the primary means by which the people were kept wandering in the wilderness" and so formed a third political party. This new party found its ba

Ayers, too, attributed the decline of Populism to the dearth of sufficient leadership. Citing Polk's death and Macune's absence, no one was left to provide the movement with direction. The deterioration of the Farmer's Alliance stifled the development of Populist policies. This was because the Farmer's Alliance provided significant support to the agrarian sub-treasury; an idea that dwindled after the Farmer's Alliance disbanded.

It is no wonder that Populism appealed to the masses in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It embodied a concept of a radical farmer-labor coalition when, in 1890, most white Americans were farmers and most Blacks were farmers or laborers. Millions of farmers adopted the term "labor" to define their hopes and predicament. The term was rooted in "urban and workingclass sources of Greenback doctrine".

Hofstadter, on the other hand, did shed some light on the motivation behind the formation of the Populist Party. He discounted the idea that the movement derived from a Western desire to return to the "old frontier" because it ignores completely the Southern movement, and because of the West's growing contempt for the Southern farmer. Rather, the movement for Hofstadter was an attempt to "restore profits in the fact of much exploitation and under unfavorable market and price conditions". He concurred with Goodwyn in the notion that the strong interest in the money power, executed in part by the two old political parties, was partial basis for the formation of the Populist Party.

rated, gains through the Southern Populists. They were elected as delegated within the Party, sometimes unanimously. The deliberate attempt by southern Populists to involve similarly disgruntled Black farmers illustrated the intensity and strength in numbers, which were among its strongest assets.

Watson's loss to Grover Cleveland in the election of 1892 marked a turning point in the Populist movement. Some viewed it as a beginning of a collapse; others saw it as fuel for a stronger, more determined party. It is well documented that the Democratic Party feared the vast numbers of the Populists, citing the rampant spirit of the third party in the South. However, after the election Populists became divided as to whether or not the movement should "fuse" with the Republicans. It seems that promoters of this fusion saw much better success in subsequent elections. Kansas fusionists attained re-election in the joint Democratic-Populist ticket of 1896, despite the ensuing deterioration of the Populist Party organization.

The lack of structure in the ideology of Populism led to widespread misinterpretation of its methods a

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Approximate Word count = 1790
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History