The Populist Movement: A Study of the Farmer's Revolt of the Nineties resulting from the Economic Discontent in Agrarian Sections of the United States, 1865-1890

The author presents this monograph on the populist movement to the public because of the increasing interest in the history of agrarian movements and of the farmer's share in politics. The populist movement, itself, is largely bounded by the last decade of the nineteenth century but its causes and antecedents call for a survey of the three previous decades just as an understanding of its results and influences demand a study of the two succeeding decades of the twentieth century. Therefore, the monograph has a two-fold division. The author has first sought to show the historical background of the populist movement by presenting the economic problems confronting the farmers of the South and West during the period from 1855 to 1890 as well as by briefly surveying the agrarian organizations which attempted to deal with these problems at that time. Such an understanding of the economic roots of populism is necessary to a proper appreciation of the actual fruits of the movement during the nineties. The second division of the monograph shows the positive development of the movement.The presentation of the monograph is thought to be timely in the light of the present agrarian revolt in all parts of the world and because no thorough-going study of the movement has yet been published. Monographs relating to this agrarian movement in Georgia, South Carolina and Iowa have appeared but no study relating to the movement as a whole showing its historical antecedents and its challenging influence on our national history has yet received detailed historical study. The author has based his research very largely on source materials consisting of magazine and newspaper publications of the nineties as well as census reports, agricultural yearbooks, government statistical reports and a vast mass of other governmental documents which have been listed in the bibliography. The riches of the Congressional Library have been quite exhaustively used in the preparation of the manuscript.