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| Aiken, Katherine G., "'It May Be Too Soon to Crow': Bunker Hill and Sullivan Company Efforts to Defeat the Miners' Union, 1890-1900." Western Historical Quarterly 1993 24(3): 308-331. About labor wars of northern Idaho in the 1890s. Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining Company in Kellogg destroyed the Miners' Union of the Coeur d'Alene by using their economic clout to coerce community leaders into cooperation and allying with state officials to counteract the union's successful Populist politics. Deadly violence, martial law, federal investigation, and establishment of a suffocating company union ensued. America: History and Life, 32:4603 Bernstein, Irving, ed., "Samuel
Gompers and Free Silver, 1896." Mississippi Valley Historical
Review. 29(3):394‑400. December 1942.
Relationship of organized labor to Populism. Gompers saw free
silver as threat to trade unionism. Populists make it key issue in 1896,
which alienated Gompers. Birmingham, Alphonse J. "The
Knights of Labor and the Farmers' Alliances." M.A. thesis, Catholic
U, 1955. Brundage, David Thomas. "The
Making of Working-Class Radicalism in the Mountain West: Denver, Colorado,
1880-1903." Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1982. DAI, 43, no. 07A, (1982): 2423.
Denver's population, commerce, and industries grew dramatically,
1880-1900. Poverty,
exploitation, and structured class inequality were the results.
The militance of Denver's labor movement was profoundly affected by
the radical wing of the Populist Party in Colorado. Clements, Roger V. "The Farmers'
Attitude Toward British Investment in American Industry." Journal
of Economic History 1955 15(2): 151-159.
The flow of British capital into American industry around 1890
deepened the farmers' distrust of the "money power," and was
taken as a formal alliance of British and American finance to create and
exploit monopoly. America:
History and Life, 0:2776 Commons, John R., et. al. History of
Labour in the United States. Vol 2. 620 p. New York: Macmillan and Co.
1921. Cox, LaWanda F. "The American
Agricultural Wage Earner, 1865-1900: The Emergence of a Modern Labor
Problem." Agricultural History. 22(2):95-114. April 1948.
Shows ever‑worsening plight of the farm wage earner, and
indicates another grievance taken up by the farmer and the Populists.
DeLeon, Richard E., and Powell, Sandra
S. "Growth Control and Electoral Politics: The Triumph of Urban
Populism in San Francisco." Western Historical Quarterly.
42:307-31. June 1989. Destler, Chester McArthur.
"Consummation of a Labor-Populist Alliance in Illinois, 1894." Mississippi
Valley Historical Review. 27(4):589-602. March 1941. Dubofsky, Melvyn. "The Origins of Western Working Class Radicalism, 1890-1905." Labor History 1966 7(2): 131-154. Rapid economic and social change in the American West resulted in a "social polarization" and the development of a class ideology which followed the Marxian pattern of development. The shift from unionism to radicalism by the Western Federation of Miners, is traced, and the shift is related to the historical trends of Populism, trade unionism, the growth of modern technology and corporate capitalism, and the alliance between corporate capitalism and government. America: History and Life, 3:2626 Fink, Leon. Workingmen's Democracy:
The Knights of Labor and American Politics. Urbana and Chicago: U of
Illinois P, 1983. Derived
from "Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor in Local Politics,
1886-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester, 1977.
DAI, 38, no. 06A, (1977): 3679.
Gaboury, William J. "From Statehouse to Bull Pen; Idaho Populism and the Coeur d'Alene Troubles of the 1890s." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 1967 58(1): 14-22. America: History and Life, 6:2940 Gerteis, Joseph Howard. 'Class and the
Color Line: The Sources and Limits of Interracial Class Coalition,
1880--1896." Ph.D. dissertation (Sociology), University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999. DAI,
60, no. 12A (1999): 4611. The
movement dialogues of class equality among the Knights of Labor, the
Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party did not extend to what was
commonly referred to as "social equality."
Their practical activities were important in determining the degree
to which the interracial coalitions were sustainable. Gilman, Rhoda R. "Eva McDonald Valesh: Minnesota Populist." Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1977): 55-76. Eva McDonald Valesh was a leading figure in Minnesota's labor and agrarian political movements. She supported the Knights of Labor, the Farmers' Alliance, and the People's Party as a journalist and lecturer. She was elected State Lecturer of the Minnesota Alliance, was a national organizer for the People's Party, and worked for William Jennings Bryan in 1896. That same year, she moved to New York City where she worked as a journalist and became involved with the Women's Trade Union League. America: History and Life, 16A:5403 Gilmore, Glenda G. "Agrarian
Unrest and Urban Remedies: The Progressive Solution in North
Carolina." Master's thesis, University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, 1985. 106 pp. Glazer, Sidney. "Labor and
Agrarian Movements in Michigan, 1876-1896." Ph.D. dissertation, U of
Michigan, 1932. ______. "Patrons of Industry in
Michigan." Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 24:185-94.
September 1937. Goldschmidt, Eli. "Labor and Populism: New York City, 1891-1896." Labor History 1972 13(4): 520-532. New York City labor opposed free silver. They believed that Populism was essentially an agricultural movement with little to offer to labor. America: History and Life, 11A:6180 Grob, Gerald N. "The Knights of Labor, Politics, and Populism." Mid-America 1958 40(1): 3-21. The failure of the Populists to win labor support through an alliance with the once-powerful Knights demonstrated that workers for the most part had finally abandoned their absorption in reform and the older equal rights and antimonopoly heritage." America: History and Life, 0:2887 _____. Workers and Utopia: A Study
of Ideological Conflict in the American Labor Movement, 1865-1900.
Evanston: Northwestern U P, 1961. Gutman, Herbert G. "Black Coal Miners and the Greenback-Labor party in Redeemer Alabama: 1878-1879." Labor History 1969 10(3): 506-535. Presents 26 letters from black and white coal miners who lived in the Birmingham steel region of Alabama that provide a description of the new Alabama working class and its living and working conditions. America: History and Life, 7:817 Hooper, Osman Castle. "The Coxey
Movement in Ohio." Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly.
9:155-76. Oct 1900. Hurt, R. Douglas. "Populist-Endorsed Judges and the Protection of Western Labor." Journal of the West 1978 17(1): 19-26. Though commonly associated with agrarianism, the Populist movement also supported urban laborers (both out of philosophy and necessity) as shown by the pro-labor rulings of populist-endorsed judges of state supreme courts in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, and Montana, 1893-1902. America: History and Life, 17A:2820 Jacobson, J. Mark. "The Farm and
Factory Conflict in American History." Current History. 32:312-18.
May 1930. James, Edward T. "American Labor
and Political Action, 1865-1896: The Knights of Labor and Its
Predecessors." Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1954.
ADD, W1954, (1954): 0233. James,
Edward T. "T.V. Powderly, A Political Profile." Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography 1975 99(4): 443-459.
Originally a supporter of the Greenback-Labor party, Powderly
became national head of the Knights of Labor in 1879. Its membership
peaked around 1886, but shortly thereafter the Knights became more
small-town and political-reform oriented.
Powderly became a Republicans in 1894.
President McKinley appointed him Commissioner-General of
Immigration in 1897. Khan, Rais Ahmad. "The People's
Party (USA) and the Working Class." University Studies.
(Pakistan) 1968 5(1):33-48.
Organized labor failed to support Populism because it lacked a class
consciousness. America: History and
Life, S:2803 Kane, Ralph J. "The Paradox of California Populism." North Dakota Quarterly 1971 39(3): 34-46. Finds California Populism split between urban, socialist-oriented, and rural, capitalist-oriented groups. Because California was generally prosperous in the 1890s and farmers were largely entrepreneurial in outlook, they were not attracted to the monetary or conspiratorial theories of Plains-State Populism. Urban Populists, leaning toward socialism, worked uneasily with their rural counterparts. California Populism more resembled Progressivism than other varieties of Populism. America: History and Life, 9:2385 Kauer, Ralph. "The Workingmen's Party in California." Pacific Historical Review. 13:278-291. September 1944. Populists and workingmen. Kaufman, Stuart. "Samuel Gompers
and the Populist Movement." Master's thesis, U of Florida, 1964. Keller, Morton. "A Passion for Politics: The Political Machine vs. The Populist Movement." Social Education 1977 41(6): 507-508. Compares politics in urban and rural areas. America: History and Life, 15A:7167 Kolnick, Jeffrey David, "A
Producer's Commonwealth: Populism and the Knights of Labor in Blue Earth
County, Minnesota, 1880-1892." Ph.D. dissertation, University of
California, Davis, 1996. DAI,
57, no. 04A, (1996). Blue
Earth farmers and workers formed one of the first Farmer-Labor parties in
the nation in 1886. Farmers
and workers were drawn together by their common experience fighting to
survive in the intensely competitive economy of the Gilded Age.
Knights and Populists spoke the same language of reform politics
and shared the same vision of a cooperative commonwealth.
Kremenak, Nellie Wilson. "Urban
Workers in the Agricultural Middle West, 1856-1893: With A Case Study of
Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa." Ph.D. dissertation, University
of Iowa, 1995. DAI, 56, no.
07A, (1995): 2838. The Great
Railroad Strike of 1877 signaled the close of a period of more open
opportunity and generated a reappraisal of community values by both
working people and local elites. For
many working people, that reevaluation led to affiliation with the Knights
of Labor, which challenged economic and political power structures.
The Knights forged political alliances with reform-minded middle
class neighbors. Working
class political activism contributed to the great political realignment of
the late nineteenth century. Lehman, Oscar Snyder. "The
Political and Legislative Activities of the Knights of Labor,
1878-1888." M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1926.
ADD, S0330, (1926): 2956. Letwin, Daniel. "Interracial Unionism, Gender, and "Social Equality" in the Alabama Coalfields, 1878-1908." Journal of Southern History 1995 61(3): 519-554. The Greenback Party, Knights of Labor, and United Mine Workers all advocated a qualified form of interracialism in the coal fields of Alabama. The absence of white women made interracial unionism possible. The sanctity of white womanhood was a crucial factor in promoting segregation. America: History and Life, 33:9480 Marcus, Irwin M.; Bullard, Jennie; and Moore, Rob. "Change and Continuity: Steel Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 1889-1895." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 1987 111(1): 61-75. Chronicles political action among the workers of the steel company town of Homestead. When the Carnegie Steel Company purchased the Homestead steel works in 1883, the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers held sufficient power to impose work rules on the new owner. The company prevailed in an 1892 lockout. Homestead workers then turned to public protest and politics. Homestead became a center of Populist political activity. With the Republican victory of 1896, the Company regained control over the town and suppress the workers' struggle. Only with the rise of the Socialist Party, did workers reassert their political power. America: History and Life, 25A:1844 Marlatt, Gene Ronald. "Joseph R.
Buchanan: Spokesman for Labor during the Populist and Progressive
Eras." 429 p. Ph.D. dissertation, U of Colorado, 1975.
DAI 36(08A):5496-5497. McMurray, Donald R. Coxey's Army: A
Study of the Industrial Army Movement of 1894. 331 p. Boston: Little,
1929. Reprinted with
introduction by John D. Hicks, Seattle: U of Washington P, 1968. "Coxeyism
was Populism." _____. "Kelly's Army." Palimpset.
6:325-45. October 1923. McPartland, Edward James. "A Study
of Rural-Urban Conflict in the Nebraska Legislature." 193 p. Ph.D.
dissertation, U of Nebraska, 1970. Dissertation
Abstracts, 31:4233-A. McWilliams, Carey. Factories in the
Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California. 334 p. Boston:
Little, 1939. Some
information of interplay of Populism and laborers. Montgomery, David. "Labor and the Republic in Industrial America: 1860-1920." Mouvement Social [France] 1980 (111): 201-215. The common roots of the many late-19th century struggles enabled militants to inspire a sense of moral universality among the producers. America: History and Life, 18A:4374 Naftalin, Arthur. "The Tradition
of Protest and the Roots of the Farmer‑Labor Party." Minnesota
History. 35(2):53‑63., illus., notes. June 1956.
Contains material on Populism and Alliance as antecedents to
Farmer-Labor Party. Peterson, James. "The Trade Unions
and the Populist Party." Science and Society.
8(2):143‑60. Spring 1944. Pierce, Michael Cain. "The Plow
and Hammer: Farmers, Organized Labor and the People's Party in Ohio."
Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1999.
DAI, 60, no. 08A (1999): 3104.
The Ohio People's Party was essentially a labor party.
Ohio farmers remained loyal to the traditional parties. Ohio's
leading trade unionist, John McBride, led the forces attempting to take
the AFL into an alliance with the People's party.
He defeated Samuel Gompers for the presidency of the AFL in 1894.
The fusion of the of the Populists and Democrats in 1896 destroyed
the coalition that Ohio trade unionists had built around the People's
party. Scholars have sought
to explain the rise of pure and simple unionism in hopes of understanding
the conservative nature of modern American politics. _____. "The Populist President of
the American Federation of Labor: The Career of John McBride, 1880-1895.
Labor History [Great Britain] 2000 41(1): 5-24. McBride supported the
Democratic Party in the mid-1880's. McBride
became the Ohio Miners' Union's first president in 1882 and held the post
until 1889. After a brief tenure as a state representative, McBride helped
found the Ohio People's Party in 1891.
Despite the failure of an 1894 miners' strike, McBride's popularity
continued among the rank and file, and he defeated Samuel Gompers, who
opposed direct political affiliation, for the office of AFL president in
1894. In his year as president, McBride worked to bring the union
into third party political action. Gompers
defeated McBride for reelection by a narrow margin in 1895.
McBride abandoned his union activity afterward.
Ray, William W. "Crusade or Civil War? The Pullman Strike in California." California History 1979 58(1): 20-37. The impact of the strike in California included the calling out of federal and state troops for the first time to maintain order, electoral successes by Populist candidates, and violence and sabotage by desperate ARU members. America: History and Life, 17A:2939 Rice, Stuart A. Farmers and Workers
in American Politics. 231 p., illus. Studies in History, Economics and
Public Law, v. 113, No. 2. New York, Columbia UP. 1924. Rodriquez, Alicia Esther. "Urban
Populism: Challenges to Democratic Party Control in Dallas, Texas:
1887-1900." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Santa
Barbara, 1998. DAI, 59, no.
10A, (1998): 3942. The
democratic party in Dallas, Texas faced political challenges from two
organizations in the 1890s. A
business-oriented leadership backed by urban laborers comprised a
non-partisan or independent faction of political challengers.
Urban workingmen who founded Dallas' People's party.
They sometimes aligned themselves with the independent faction in
municipal elections. Ross, Steven Joseph. "Workers on
the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati,
1830-1890." Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1980. DAI, 41, no. 02A, (1980): 0774.
From the outbreak of the May Day strikes of 1886 until the demise
of the United Labor party in 1888, thousands of Cincinnati workers cast
aside long time barriers of race, religion, ethnicity, sex, and craft and
joined together in a collective crusade to create a new industrial
commonwealth. Salvatore, Nick. Eugene V. Debs:
Citizen and Socialist. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1982. Saxton, Alexander. "San Francisco Labor and the Populist and Progressive Insurgencies." Pacific Historical Review. 34(4):421-38. Tables. November 1965. Populists in California did win support of urban labor. America: History and Life, 14A:2729 Sorge, George A. Labor Movement in
the United States: A History of the American Working Class from 1890 to
1896. Trans. by Kai Schoenhals. Contributions in Economics and
Economic History No. 73. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1987.
Information on Knights of Labor and American Railway Union. 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 of New South politics 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. _____. "'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 mill workers 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 mill workers in Augusta. America: History and Life, 36:6680 Ward, Robert D. and William W. Rogers. Labor
Revolt in Alabama: The Great Strike of 1894. 172 p. U of Alabama P,
1945. White, William Thomas. "A History
of Railroad Workers in the Pacific Northwest, 1883-1934." Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Washington, 1981.
DAI, 42, no. 12A, (1981): 5224.
In the 1890s, the Gilded Age pattern of community support for
insurgent workers achieved its most dramatic expression in the Coxey
Movement, the Great Northern Strike, and the Pullman Strike of 1894,
during which the region's Populist, anti-railroad mood supported militant
action by unemployed railway workers and those belonging to the American
Railway Union. Whitman, Alden. "Notes on Populism
and Labor: Reply to J. Peterson with Rejoinder." Science and
Society. 9(3):252-53. Attacks
Judy Peterson for her review of Rochester, The Populist Movement....
Says Populists and labor were united on major causes and other issues
besides free silver. Peterson review appeared in Science and Society.
8(3): 267-71. 1944. Wyman, Roger E. "Agrarian or Working-Class Radicalism? The Electoral Basis of Populism in Wisconsin." Political Science Quarterly 1974/75 89(4): 825-848. Wisconsin Populism arose out of socialist-oriented labor radicalism. Challenges commonly-held belief that Wisconsin had a long tradition of agrarian radicalism in the late nineteenth century. America: History and Life, 12A:6919 |