Comparative Populism
(Comparisons with other American Movements and with Movements in other Countries) 

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Barkin, Kenneth. "A Case Study in Comparative History: Populism in Germany and America." In The State of American History. Pp. 373‑404. Herbert J. Bass, ed. notes. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1970.  Presented as a paper before the Organization of American Historians, April 17‑19, 1969, Philadelphia.  Notes the similarity of the American Populist response and that of the Junkers to the Agrarian crisis of the 1890s.  Refutes radical critique to Populism.  

Coleman, Peter J. "New Zealand Liberalism and the Origins of the American Welfare State." Journal of American History. 69(2):372-91. 1982. Populists Henry Demarest Lloyd and Julius Wayland influenced and were influenced by New Zealand reform, although the author refers to them as Progressives rather than Populists. 

Canovan, Marquart. "Two Strategies for the Study of Populism." Political Studies. [Great Britain]. 30(4):544-52. 1982.  Theory versus phenomenology. US, Russia, Argentina, Great Britain and India. 

Chrislock, Carl H. "The Politics of Protest in Minnesota, 1890‑1901, from Populism to Progressivism." 365 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of Minnesota, 1955.  Dissertation Abstracts, 15:1055. June 1955.  

Conway, J. F. "Populism in the United States, Russia, and Canada: Explaining the Roots of Canada's Third Parties." Canadian Journal of Political Science [Canada] 1978 11(1): 99-124. Examines the literature on populist movements to better understand the third party movements of Canada's prairie provinces. America: History and Life, 17A:232

Dethloff, Henry C. "The Longs: Revolution or Populist Retrenchment?" Louisiana History 1978 19(4): 401-412.  Compares the politics of Huey Long with Populism and Progressivism in Louisiana.  "Longism" had roots in Populism and Progressivism, but was more radical.  The Long mystique was revolutionary. America: History and Life, 16A:7891

Goebel, Thomas. "The Political Economy of American Populism from Jackson to the New Deal." Studies in American Political Development 1997 11(1): 109-148.  Populist republicanism took numerous incarnations.  Each shared a common ideology that political favoritism and abuse of political power caused wealth and economic power concentrated wealth into the hands of the few, which eroded American democracy.  Included are Jacksonian democracy, the Greenback Party, the Grange reform movement, the Populists, and Progressivism.   Each produced a distinctive ideology and language of protest that crossed class and party lines to champion the absolute sovereignty and wisdom of the people.  New Deal legislation aimed at dismantling monopolies and trusts made Populism irrelevant. America: History and Life, 35:5077

Hughes, John F. "The Jacksonians, the Populists and the Governmental Habit." Mid-America 1994 76(1): 5-26.  Jacksonians and Populists believed in the labor theory of value, opposed to the concentration of wealth, and both movements regarded themselves as outsiders opposed by money interests and the press.  Populists differed in advocating government intervention in the economy. America: History and Life, 34:1106

Ionescu, Ghita and Ernest Geller, eds. Populism: Its Meaning and National Characteristics. 263 p. New York: Macmillan, 1969.  See, Richard Hofstadter, "North America."  

Johnson, Robert H. "The New Populism and the Old: Demands for a New International Economic Order and American Agrarian Protest." International Organization 1983 37(1): 41-72.  Draws parallels between the demands of the developing nations and American Populism.  Both protested the existing distribution of wealth and power, adverse terms of trade, excessive middlemen profits, a monetary system dominated by industry, limited access to credit, and the burden of debt.  Both sought a restoration of local control. America: History and Life, 20A:6901

Larson, Robert W. "Students, Populists, and a Sense of History: An Essay." Colorado Magazine 1971 48(1): 43-48.  Compares the early 1970s student rebellion with 1890s Populism.  The author finds similarities in the opposition to bigness, disenchantment with government, and in dress (though the tattered overalls and faded shirts of the Populists were a result of poverty). Differences include disparity in age, methods of protest, clarity of objectives, and in attitude toward the American political system.  The student rebellion was not a total departure from the American tradition. America: History and Life, 8:2587

Lipset, Seymour Martin. "Radicalism in North America: A Comparative View of the Party Systems in Canada and the United States." Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada [Canada] 1976 14: 19-55.  Compares the United States and Canada, with emphasis on why socialism developed in Canada and not in the United States.  Included are the counterrevolutionary background of the creation of Canada as opposed to the egalitarian traditions of the United States which left little need for a socialist party and the Canadian tradition of government intervention in economic and local political matters.  Most importantly, Canada has a parliamentary system which encourages the development of third parties while the American two-party system is almost impossible to change.  American voters believe that a vote for a third-party candidate is thrown away. America: History and Life, 15A:6596

Loomis, Calvin James. "An Interpretation of the Populist and Progressive Parties as a Social Movement." Master's thesis (Political Science), Northern Illinois University, 1953. 

McMath, Robert C., Jr. "Populism in Two Countries: Agrarian Protest in the Great Plains and Prairie Provinces." Agricultural History 1995 69(4): 516-546.  The rise and decline of Populist movements parallel the rise and decline of powerful political and economic institutions that are perceived to threaten producers' right to a fair reward for their labor.  The Canadian and American movements diverged after 1924 Canadians began forming large cooperative associations and the American government became interventionist. America: History and Life, 34:380

McNall, Scott G. "State, Party, and Ideology: Populism in New Zealand and the United States." Comparative Social Research 1986 9: 3-26.  Populism took root in New Zealand's predominantly agrarian society while it faded in an increasingly industrial America.  American Populists had difficulty representing farmers, laborers and the middle class.  New Zealand's Reform Party focused upon anti-colonialism to unite rural and urban interests. America: History and Life, 26:8656

Peal, David. "The Politics of Populism: Germany and the American South in the 1890s." Comparative Studies in Society and History 1989 31(2): 340-362.  A comparison of the first anti-Semitic movement in the German Reichstag of the 1890's with Populism in the American South.  Both movements mobilized small farmers on the margins of political and economic life and produced charismatic leaders skillful in mobilizing popular grievances.  Anti-Semitism and Racism pervaded both movements and was their principal legacy. America: History and Life, 27:14021