Kansas Populism : Ideas and Men / O. Gene Clanton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clanton, O. Gene, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Populist Party (U.S. : 1892-1908).

Populism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 330 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

University Press of Kansas 1969

Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, 1969.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Because Kansas has been called “the leading Midwestern Populist state,” and the Midwestern phrase was the principle one of this significant movement in American history, this first comprehensive history of the Kansas People’s party, its leaders, and their thoughts and actions is an important addition to Populist historiography. Through this study of the leadership, as well as a complete and personal background analysis of the Populist and Republican members of five Kansas legislatures, the author helps to place Populism within its proper historical context.Although Kansas Populism is shown to have had a retrogressive strain, the pervasive force of the movement is revealed as a constructive and progressive response to the technological achievements that had revolutionized agriculture and industry over the course of the nineteenth century. Their answers were not always commendable, but the Populists were the first political activists to come to grips in an effective manner with the problems created by the continuing economic revolution that uniquely characterizes modern history, and they were “intent on demonstrating, apparently, that the purification of politics was not an iridescent dream.” In the dialogue which they conducted, in the program which they advance, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that continues in our own time.Undertaken with the objective of testing recent controversial interpretations of the Populist movement, this book, according to one reader, “far surpasses” studies of Populism in other states “done long ago and innocent of modern methods.” It contains passages “almost epigrammatic in their perceptiveness” and is notable for the author’s “fairness in dealing with the evidence.” In fact, the breadth of research and the extensive annotation and bibliographical material included make this volume an important source in itself.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword to Kansas Open Books Edition

Preface

Acknowledgments

I. "Nothing Succeeds Like Success": Kansas Populism's Gilded-Age Background

II. A Dissident Dialogue

III. Goodbye, My Party, Goodbye

IV. Kansas Populist Leadership: Clodhoppers or Agrarian Iconoclasts?

V. "A Turnip Crusade, As It Were"

VI. Looking Toward 1892

VII. "Rats, Rats, and Pickled Cats Are Good Enough for Pops and Democrats"

VIII. "The First People's Party Government on Earth"

IX. Nothing Fails Like Failure: 1894 and the Redeemers

X. Metamorphosis

XI. Silver, Fusion, and Success?

XII. The Determined and the Disgruntled

XIII. Vindication? The Populist Leader in the Progressive Era

Appendixes

I. Individual Leaders and a Selective List of Sources for Biographical Statistics

II. Composite Comparison of the Major Kansas Populist Leadership for the Years 1890 and 1896

III. Members of the 1893 House for Whom Information Was Obtained by Individual Reference and the Sources of that Information

IV. Composite Comparison of the Kansas Legislatures of 1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, and 1899

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780700600113

0700600116

OCLC:

1431978072