Georgia

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Adams, Olin Burton. "The Negro and the Agrarian Movement in Georgia, 1874-1908." 417 p. Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State U, 1973.

Arnett, Alex Mathews. "The Populist Movement in Georgia." Georgia Historical Quarterly. 7:313‑338. December 1923.  Brief history of  Farmers' Alliance and Populist Party in Georgia, 1887‑1902. 

_____. The Populist Movement in Georgia: A View of the "Agrarian Crusade" in light of Solid-South Politics. 241 pp. Columbia U Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, CIV. New York: Columbia U, 1922.  This is one of the classic state studies. The "wool‑hat" boys versus the Bourbon oligarchy. Derived from his 1922 PhD dissertation from Columbia U of the same title.

Banks, Enoch Marvin. The Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia. 142 Public Law, 23(1).  New York: Columbia UP, 1905. Reprinted New York: AMS Press, 1968.  Valuable on Southern cropping systems.

Bonner, James C. and Lucien E. Roberts, eds. Studies in Georgia History and Government. 284 pp. Athens, Georgia: U of Georgia P, 1940. See especially "The Alliance Legislature of 1890."

Brewton, William W. The Life of Thomas E. Watson, 1856-1922. 408 p. Atlanta: the author, 1926.

Brooks, Robert Preston. The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865-1912. 129 pp. Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 639, History series. Madison: U of Wisconsin, 1914.  Good on the economic background of southern Populism.

Carageorge, Ted. "An Evaluation of Hoke Smith and Thomas E. Watson as Georgia Reformers." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Georgia, 1963.  DAI, 24, no. 06, (1963): 2440.

Cashin, Edward J. "Vann Woodward's 'Tom Watson': An Interpretation." Georgia Review. 28(3):519-31. 1974.

Chambliss, Amy. "Tom Watson's R.F.D." Georgia Review. 17(1):76‑84. Spring 1963.

Crow, Jeffrey J. "Tom Watson, Populists, and Blacks Reconsidered." Journal of Negro History 1970 55(2): 99-116. Watson maintained his devotion to white supremacy throughout his entire political career, but he did make a few token concessions to Negroes during the 1890's. He had an extremely secure and loyal following of people who were willing to tolerate his eccentricities because they were certain of his racist ideology and regional loyalty.  Many of Watson's deviations can also be traced to his hatred of all things Wilsonian.  America: History and Life, 8:1477

Davis, Harold E. "Henry Grady, The Atlanta Constitution, and the Politics of Farming in the 1880s." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1987 71(4): 571-600.  Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was the principal spokesman for the New South Creed.  With the rise of the Southern Farmers' Alliance, Grady could not ignore the farmer's woes.  He proclaimed sympathy for the farmer.  But, his articles and speeches presented a the same rosy picture of the rural lifestyle as before.  He advocated diversification and self-sufficiency.  America: History and Life, 26:6447

Felton, Rebecca. Memoirs of Georgia Politics, A First Hand Account. 680 pp. Atlanta: Index, 1911.  First hand account of Populist delegation, 1892.

Fingerhut, Eugene R. "Tom Watson, Blacks, and Southern Reform." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1976 60(4): 324-343. Traces the career of the Georgia Populist leader Thomas E. Watson from about 1880 to the early 1900's, focusing on his attitudes toward Negroes. Early in his career he supported limited rights for blacks, especially the opportunity to vote, but later on he reversed his position and became a supporter of Negro disfranchisement because that position was more useful for the reforms he was then advocating. America: History and Life, 15A:8890

Franzoni, Janet Brenner. "Troubled Tirader: A Psychobiographical Study of Tom Watson." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1973 57(4): 493-510.  Watson's colorful tirades and efforts ranged in extremes from pro- to anti-black, Catholic, and Jew.  Psychological analysis might hold the key to an understanding of his career. 79 notes. America: History and Life, 11A:2943

Grantham, Dewey W., Jr. Hoke Smith and the Politics of the New South. 396 p. Baton Rouge, LSU Press. 1958.  Good treatment of Southern Populism. 

_____. "Hoke Smith: Progressive Governor of Georgia, 1907‑1909." Journal of Southern History. 15(4):423‑440. November 1949. Governor of Georgia, "A Populist in Democratic Regalia." 

_____. "Hoke Smith: Representative of the New South." Ph.D. dissertation, U of North Carolina, 1949.

Gray, Sarah Lois. "Thomas E. Watson: Leader of Georgia Populism." Master's thesis, Emory U, 1933.

Hahn, Stephen. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeomen Farmers and the Transformation of Georgia's Upcountry, 1850-1890. 340 p. New York: Oxford University P, 1983.  Populism was a typical peasant response to the transformation from self‑sufficient yeoman farming to commercial agriculture in two north Georgia counties.  Derived from Hahn's dissertation, "The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeomen Farmers and the Transformation of Georgia's Upper Piedmont, 1850-1890." 490 p.  Yale U, 1979. DAI 1980 40(11):5977-5978-A. 9011057.

Herrin, Michael Gary. "The Populist Party in North Georgia." Master's thesis, Vanderbilt University. 1990.

Holmes, William F. "Ellen Dortch and the Farmers' Alliance." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1985 69(2): 149-172.  Ellen Dortch (1863-1962) served as editor of the Carnesville Tribune in Franklin County, Georgia, during 1890-92. She strongly opposed the Southern Farmers' Alliance, the Georgia Alliance, and the People's Party, particularly attacking Thomas Jefferson Stonecypher, the local Alliance lecturer. Although she sympathized with the farmers' problems she was opposed to their political involvement in a third party. America: History and Life, 23A:6769

_____. "The Georgia Alliance Legislature." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1984 68(4): 479-515. Alliance legislaors in the 1890-1891 session did not vote in a radical or even a unified way, often differing with Georgia Alliance president Leonidas Livingston.  The Alliance-dominated legislature to pass reform measures endorsed by the Alliance. America: History and Life, 23A:1751

_____. "Populism in Black Belt Georgia: Racial Dynamics in Taliaferro County Politics, 1890-1900." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1999 83(2): 242-266.

_____. "The Roots of Southern Populism." Georgia Historical Quarterly. 67(4):489-502. 1983.  Review of Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism. 

_____. "The Southern Farmers' Alliance and the Georgia Senatorial Election of 1890." Journal of Southern History 1984 50(2): 197-224.  Despite the efforts to link the Southern Farmers' Alliance with radicalism and specifically with the subtreasury plan for cheap credit and flexible-currency populism, the Georgia Farmers' Alliance consisted of diverse and conflicting factions.  Georgia's largest alliance factions opposed the nationalization of the transportation system and remained loyal to the Democratic Party.  The Georgia Farmers' Alliance was also divided over the subtreasury plan.  The fact the radical faction was always a minority in the alliance explains the inability of the Populists to dominate Georgia. America: History and Life, 22A:4127

_____. "The Southern Farmers' Alliance: The Georgia Experience." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1988 72(4): 627-652.  1887-91. The Alliance was exclusively rural, catering mainly to middle-level white farmers and their concerns, particularly the economic problems caused by the crop lien system. Cooperative Alliance-sponsored stores did not last long, but a successful boycott against using jute to bag bales of cotton was waged in 1889. Since blacks were barred from the organization, they formed their own branch of the Colored Farmers' Alliance in 1890, but it lasted less than two years. America: History and Life, 27:6596

Kantor, Shawn Everett. "Supplanting the Roots of Southern Populism: The Contours of Political Protest in the Georgia Hills." Journal of Economic History 1995 55(3): 637-646.  Reexamines the claim of Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism that the rise of Populism in up-country Postbellum Georgia was caused by the controversy over grazing rights and stock laws.  Using Hahn's date, shows that there is no statistical connection in the case of Carroll County and that in Jackson County a perceived threat to basic democratic rights of local self-government was the more likely direct cause of Populist success. America: History and Life, 34:3344

Kimmel, Bruce Ira. "The Political Sociology of Third Parties in the United States: A Comparative Study of the People's Party in North Carolina, Georgia and Minnesota." Ph.D. Dissertation (Sociology), Columbia University, 1981.  Focuses on the reactions of major parties to the instability created by a third party.  In the 1890's, North Carolina and Minnesota had relatively stable two-party systems. A single party dominated in Georgia. North Carolina and Georgia politics in this period were undemocratic, while Minnesota politics were as democratic as any in the nation.  The instability is attributed to the social strains generated by rapid industrialization. 

Korobkin, Russell. "The Politics of Disfranchisement in Georgia." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1990 74(1): 20-58.  Refutes J. Morgan Kousser, The Shaping of Southern Politics.  Those responsible for disfranchisement did not urge it for racial, but rather for political reasons, despite racially inflamed rhetoric.  Disfranchisement was a reform urged by former Populists, independents, and non-machine Democrats.  America: History and Life, 29:2855

MacLean, Nancy. "The Leo Frank Case Reconsidered: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Making of Reactionary Populism." Journal of American History. 78:917-948.  December 1991.

Moseley, Charlton. "Latent Klanism in Georgia, 1890-1915." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1972 56(3): 365-386.  The Ku Klux Klan remained dormant in the South until the Populist era.  Then it was reactivation for a series of racially biased, violent incidents directed against blacks and Jews. America: History and Life, S:6818

Nelson, Richard Wayne.  "The Cultural Contradictions of Populism: Tom Watson's Tragic Vision of Power, Politics, and History." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1988 72(1): 1-29.  Watson's views did not change, as some historians have suggested, but were responses to situations caused by conflict between his republican ideology and his ambition. 

_____. "Two Machiavellian Moments in Twentieth Century Political Culture." 501 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of Minnesota, 1986.  DAI 47(11):4495-A. DA8706947.  The writings of Tom Watson were in the republican political tradition.  

Powers, Felicitas. "Prejudice, Journalism, and the Catholic Laymen's Association of Georgia." U.S. Catholic Historian 1989 8(3): 201-212. Anti-Catholicism was a dominant and recurring theme in Georgia politics during the first half of the 20th century.  Tom Watson's prejudicial theories were part of this.  America: History and Life, 30:2823

Quillian, Bascom Osborne, "The Populist Challenge in Georgia in the Year 1894." Master's thesis, University of Georgia, 1948.  119 pages.

Ramage, Thomas W. "The Bloody Death Congressional Election of 1892." Richmond County History 7(2):65-75. 1975.  On Tom Watson's bid for re-election.  Reaction by Roy V. Harris, pp. 75-76.

Range, Willard. A Century of Georgia Agriculture, 1850-1950. 333 p. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1954.

Reddick, Jamie Lawson. "The Negro and the Populist Movement in Georgia." M.A. thesis, Atlanta U, 1937.

Rosengarten, Theodore. "'I Stand Where My Boyhood Put Me': Reconsidering Woodward's Tom Watson." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1988 72(4): 684-697.  Discusses C. Vann Woodward, Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel (1938).  The book appeared when interest in Southern history was increasing.  But, the book's theme dissented from the current historiography on the New South. 

Saunders, Robert M. "The Transformation of Tom Watson, 1894-1895." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1970 54(3): 339-356. Populist Thomas E. Watson's moved to the political right in 1895.  He became increasingly conservative, attacking Roman Catholics, Jews, labor, radicals, Socialists, Democrats, and, more particularly, men like Jacob Coxey and Henry George. He also became a thorough racist, abandoning his former position of moderation on the Negro question. America: History and Life, 8:2083

Schmier, Louis E. "'No Jew Can Murder': Memories of Tom Watson and the Lichtenstein Murder Case of 1901." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1986 70(3): 433-455.  In November, 1900, Sigmund Lichtenstein, a Jewish store owner in Adrian, Georgia, accidentally killed John Welch, a drunken man who had attacked him.  Lichtenstein was tried and acquitted at least partly because he was defended by noted lawyer Tom Watson. America: History and Life, 25A:4520

Shaw, Barton. The Wool-Hat Boys: Georgia's Populist Party. Baton Rouge: LSU P, 1984.  Georgia Populism grew out of a dissenter tradition that stretched back to the antebellum Whig and Unionist movements. Derived from "The Wool-Hat Boys: A History of the Populist Party in Georgia, 1892 to 1910." PhD dissertation, Emory U, 1979. 369 pp. DAI 40(3):1655-A.

Simms, L. Moody, Jr. "A Note on Sidney Lanier's Attitude Towards the Negro and Toward Populism." Georgia Historical Quarterly. 52(3):305-307. 1968.

Smith, Robert W. "'The People's Party Paper' and Georgia's Tom Watson." Journalism Quarterly 1965 42(1): 110-111.  The weekly newspaper started in 1891 was profitable from November, 1892 to July, 1894.  The circulation never exceeded twenty thousand. America: History and Life, 2:1466

Soule, Sarah A. "Populism and Black Lynching in Georgia, 1890-1900." Social Forces 1992 71(2): 431-449.  Rates of racial violence rose when interracial competition increased. This increase was due primarily to black migration to Southern manufacturing areas, black participation in the cotton economy, and the rise of black participation in the Populist movement.  Black counties and counties with a higher degree of farm tenancy were more likely to have supported Populist candidates, and manufacturing counties were less likely to vote Populist. Lynching rates were found to increase when economic competition increased, but counties that voted Populist did not have significantly higher rates of black lynching. America: History and Life, 34:11612

Stermock, Michael C. "The Later Career of Tom Watson, 1906-1922." Master's thesis, University of North Dakota, 1984. 88 p.

Taylor, A. Elizabeth. "The Convict Lease System in Georgia, 1866‑1908." Master's thesis, U of North Carolina, 1940.

Vinson, J. Chal. "Hoke Smith and the 'Battle of the Standards' in Georgia, 1895‑1896." Georgia Historical Quarterly. 36(3):201‑19. September 1952.  Election of 1896; Smith's advocacy of Gold Standard; resignation from Cleveland's cabinet as Secretary of Interior.  Fights to keep southern Democratic party from Populist takeover.

Wade, John Donald. "Jefferson: New Style." American Mercury. 28(71):293‑301. November 1929.  Subject is Tom Watson. Glossy, eulogistic, popular, at times, almost a Psalm.

Walsh, Julia Mary. "Horny-handed Sons of Toil": Workers, Politics, and Religion in Augusta, Georgia, 1880-1910." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999.  DAI, 60, no. 09A (1999): 3501.  An examination, through the lens of religion, of the textile strike of 1886, rise of urban Populism, and the success of the white supremacist, anti-Catholic, Cracker Party in early twentieth century Augusta.  The presence of so many transported rural folk provided a human bridge between rural Populists and urban workers.  A politically-active working class found common cultural and religious ground with rural workers and identified with their political struggles.  Ultimately, Populists were doomed by a combination of electoral fraud, internal division, and race baiting. 

Walsh, Julia. "'Horny-Handed Sons of Toil': Mill Workers, Populists and the Press in Augusta, 1886-1894." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1997 81(2): 311-344.  Uses three Georgia newspapers (the Democratic Augusta Chronicle, the Populist People's Party Paper, and the Wool Hat of Richmond County) from 1892-93 to examine the Populist appeal to textile millworkers and Democratic opposition to the Populist perspective.  Tom Watson stressed class issues, particularly the need for an alliance between both farmers and industrial workers against upper-class owners. There was apparently substantial sympathy for the Populist cause among some millworkers in Augusta.  America: History and Life, 36:6680           

Watson, Thomas E. "Why I Am Still a Populist." Review of Reviews. 38:303‑306. September 1908.  Maintains that through Populism the spirit of protest can be kept alive." Hicks, Populist Revolt.  Watson was the Populist candidate for president in 1908.          

Wilhoit, Francis M. "An Interpretation of Populism's Impact on the Georgia Negro." Journal of Negro History 1967 52(2): 116-127. Conclusions drawn from the Georgia election of 1892 led Georgia Populist leaders to a policy of excluding blacks from political life, the lack of class consciousness among the poor in Georgia, the importance of race in the State's politics, the continued tension between rural and urban areas, the fragile nature of southern liberalism, the tendency of bigotry to spread from one area of human relations to another, and the crucial importance of politics in determining the Negro's status in the South.  America: History and Life, 4:2720      

Woodward, C. Vann. Tom Watson: Agrarian rebel. 518 p. New York: Macmillan, 1938.  Reprint by Rinehart. 1955.  Derived from Ph.D. dissertation, "The Political and Literary Career of Thomas E. Watson." U of North Carolina, 1937.         

Woodward, Comer V. "The Political and Literary Career of Thomas E. Watson." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1937. ADD, W1937, (1937): 0076.