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| Ashcraft,
James. "Agrarian Reform Newspapers in Missouri, 1888-1896." M.A.
thesis, U of Missouri, 1947. Barthelme, Marion K., ed. Women
in the Texas Populist Movement: Letters to the Southern Mercury.
College Station: Texas A. & M. U. Pr., 1997. 248 pp. Derived from, "Women in the Texas Populist Movement:
Their Letters to the 'Southern Mercury.'" M.A. thesis, Rice
University, 1994. MAI, 33,
no. 04, (1994): 1133. These
letters give some idea of the concerns, thoughts, and daily lives of
ordinary women in the Alliance and Populist movements.
They provide a view of women's perceptions of their domestic sphere
and their hopes and expectations for the Alliance and Populist Party. Many women found community, mutuality and a stronger sense of
self through participation in the movement. Bennion, Sherilyn Cox. "Ada Chase Merritt and the Recorder: A Pioneer Idaho Editor and Her Newspaper." Idaho Yesterdays 1982 25(4): 22-30. Ada Chase Merritt edited the Salmon City Idaho Recorder from 1888 to 1906. The paper first supported the Democrats, then the Populists, then the free silver proponents. American History and Life, 20A:3127 Bowman,
Clifford E. "The Populist Press of Nebraska, 1888-1896." M.A.
thesis, U of Nebraska, 1936. _____.
"The Local Nebraska Press and National Politics, 1896-1908. 485 p.
Ph.D. dissertation, U of Nebraska, 1964.
Excellent study of power of Populist-Alliance Press, among others. Brady,
Marilyn Dell. "Populism and Feminism in a Newspaper by and for Women
of the Kansas Farmers' Alliance, 1891-1894." Kansas History.
7(4):280-90. 1984-85. On Farmers
Wife newspaper. Clark, Thomas
D. The Rural Press and the New South. 111 p. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State UP, 1948. Little on the reform press, but good insight into the
trials and tribulations of the rural press. Cloud, Barbara. "Laura Hall Peters: Pursuing the Myth of Equality." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 1983 74(1): 28-36. In addition to working for women's suffrage, Hall joined the Knights of Labor and the Populist movement. She promoted the utopian Puget Sound Co-operative Colony and edited its newspaper, Model Commonwealth. America: History and Life, 21A:2897 Cochran,
David. "A Socialist Publishing House." History Workshop
Journal [Great Britain] 1987 (24): 162-165.
A brief account of the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company.
Founded in 1886, it published books on radical Unitarianism,
populist radicalism, and Marxian socialism.
America: History and Life, 26:5195 Danker,
Donald F. "Populist Cartoons." Kansas Quarterly. 1(4): 11-20.
Fall 1969. 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 Denton,
Richard Charles. "The American Nonconformist and Kansas Industrial
Liberator: A Union Labor-Populist Newspaper, 1886-1891." Master's
thesis, Kansas State College of Pittsburgh, 1961. Digby-Junger,
Richard. "The Gilded Age Journalist as Advocate: Henry Demarest Lloyd
and 'Wealth Against Commonwealth.'" Ph.D. dissertation (Journalism),
University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1989.
DAI, 51, no. 01A, (1989). Lloyd
not only was a reformer and political philosopher, but also an activist
journalist who championed various reforms as his perceptions changed.
His attempt to fuse urban labor and socialistic elements with
Populism was unsuccessful. Drago, Edmund
L. "The Black Press and Populism, 1890-1896." San Jose
Studies 1975 1(1): 97-103. Between
1890 and 1896, black newspapers were almost exclusively Republican in
politics. Dyson, Lowell
K. "Radical Farm Organizations and Periodicals in America, 1920-1960."
Agricultural History. 45:111-20. April 1971.
An interesting post-mortem on Populism. Folkerts,
Jean. "Functions of the Reform Press." Journalism History
1985 12(1): 22-25. The
Alliance and Populist Party were successful primarily because of reform
press. _____. "William Allen White's Anti-Populist Rhetoric as an Agenda-Setting Technique." Journalism Quarterly 1983 60(1): 28-34. White's anti-Populist writings as editor of the Emporia Gazette. He was pro-business. America: History and Life, 22A:4434 Fry, Joseph A. "Silver and Sentiment: The Nevada Press and the Coming of the Spanish-American War." Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 1977 20(4): 222-239. All Nevada newspapers criticized Spanish rule in Cuba and most disagreed with Cuban policies of President William McKinley (1843-1901). Populist and Democratic papers resorted to yellow journalism and advocated war with Spain to improve Nevada's economy. Republican papers called for war with Spain, but cited principally self-defense and humanitarian reasons. America: History and Life, 16A:1122 Fuller, Leon W. "A Populist Newspaper of the Nineties." Colorado Magazine. 9:81‑87, illus., notes. May 1932. The ideas of Davis H. Waite in his Aspen Union Era, 1891-1892. Fuller, Wayne
E. "The Populists and the Post Office." Agricultural History
1991 65(1): 1-16. Post Office
regulations had been amended between 1874 and 1875 to make second-class
mailings both easy and cheap.
Newspapers were delivered at no cost within their county of origin, and
exchanges between newspapers were also free. This led to a proliferation
of Populist weeklies giving broad support to the party's candidates. Such
propaganda books as Coin's Financial School were bound in paper and mailed
at the lowest rate, purportedly as part of a series.
America: History and Life, 29:9168 Gersuny,
Carl. "John Francis Smith, Heterodox Yankee Printer." Rhode
Island History 1979 38(3): 87-95.
Smith supported socialism, populism, libertarianism, and
secularism, energy conservation, environmental protection, and the rights
of women and children. Glazener, Nancy. "Regional Accents: Populism, Feminism, and New England Women's Regionalism." Arizona Quarterly 1996 52(3): 33-53. The writings of New England women regionalists like Alice Brown, Rose Terry Cooke, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett that appeared in Boston's Populistic Arena magazine in the 1890's. They integrated Populist political concerns with the conventions of women's domestic literature. America: History and Life, 35:15447 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 Gould, Lewis
L. "A.S. Mercer and the Johnson County War: A Reappraisal." Arizona
and the West 1965 7(1): 5-20. Mercer
achieved fame as author of The Banditti of the Plains,
regarded as a classic of Americana. It
was a stinging indictment of the cattle barons' role in the 1892 Johnson
County war. Overly confident
Wyoming Republicans suffered defeat in the 1892 elections primarily
because they had become identified with the pro-cattle interest and their
involvement in the unpopular Johnson County war.
His ebbing financial resources and his sense of opportunism
catapulted Mercer and his Journal, the Northwestern Live Stock
Journal (Cheyenne), into the Democratic-Populist camp.
His rewards were a minor position and considerable notoriety. Still financially embarrassed, he spent the winter of 1893
writing Banditti in hopes it would enhance his position and
pocketbook. The issue was no
longer salient in the election of 1894, and the Democrats and Populists
were crushed. 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. Hunt, James
L. "The Making of a Populist: Marion Butler, 1863-1895." North
Carolina Historical Review 1985 62(1): 53-77.
Butler was president of the Farmer's Alliance and a
"Fusionist." He
presented orations at the University of North Carolina (1881-85) on racist
and Southern themes. After
graduation, he taught school and edited The Caucasian. Jeansonne,
Glen. "Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in
the Presidential Election of 1896." Journal of American Culture
1988 11(2): 1-8. Examines
cartoons during the 1896 presidential campaign.
Republicans concentrated their satirical attacks on Bryan and free
silver. Democrats and
Populists usually targeted McKinley's campaign manager, Mark Hanna,
"as a bloated sinister figure with a cruel face, wearing a suit
decorated with dollar signs." Lang, William
L. "One Path to Populism: Will Kennedy and the People's Party of
Montana." Pacific Northwest Quarterly 1983 74(2): 77-86.
During the 1880s, Kennedy gradually moved away from the GOP and
adopted an independent political course. By 1889, he utilized his
newspaper, the Boulder Age, to lobby for Henry George's
single tax idea and the secret ballot.
He became a Populist in 1892 and promoted a number of its reforms.
Kennedy moved to Arizona in 1895, and died in 1897. Lindgren,
James M. "The Apostasy of a Southern Anti-Imperialist: Joseph Bryan,
The Spanish-American War, and Business Expansion." Southern
Studies 1991 2(2): 151-178. Bryan
edited the Democratic Richmond Times and originally was
anti-imperialist. To undercut
Populism, he came to support expansionism and the war as the only way to
defeat radical ideas. He
believed economic recovery was possible only through the new imperialism. Lutzky,
Seymour. "The Reform Editors and Their Press." Ph.D.
dissertation, State U of Iowa, 1951.
Old, but still valuable. Macoll, John
D. "Ezra a. Olleman: The Forgotten Man of Greenbackism,
1873-1876." Indiana Magazine of History 1969 65(3): 173-196.
A prosperous Indiana merchant, Olleman became one of the prime
movers in the Greenback movement. As
associate editor of the Indiana Farmer, Olleman helped found
the Greenback Party in Indiana, but in 1876 he fell out with the State's
party leaders. His lasting
influence is a result of his editorial work for the Greenback movement. Matusow,
Allen J. "The Mind of B.O. Flower." New England Quarterly
1961 34(4): 492-509. Analyzes the ideas of Benjamin Orange Flower, editor
of the Arena from 1889 to 1896.
Flower supported such varied causes as spiritualism, the Social
Gospel, women's rights, realism in literature, educational reform,
Populism, free silver, Fabian socialism, and Imperialism.
Miller, Worth Robert.
"Educating
the Masses: Cartoons from the Populist Press of the 1890s." American
Nineteenth Century History. 4, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 104-119. _____. Populist Cartoons: An Illustrated History of the Populist Movement in the 1890s. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2011. 198 pp. This book tells the story of the Populist Revolt through 150 cartoons taken from Populist newspapers of the 1880s and 1890s, with an accompanying narrative. Miraldi,
Robert. "Charles Edward Russell: 'Chief of the Muckrakers.'"
Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs 1995 (150): 1-27. Russell's journalism was an amalgam of progressivism,
populism, and socialism. He
maintained credibility with the establishment through meticulous research,
colorful phrasing, and reasoned conclusions in his writing. Morrison,
Joseph L. Josephus Daniel Says...An Editor's Political Odyssey from
Bryan to Wilson and F.D.R., 1894-1913. 339 p. Chapel Hill: U of North
Carolina P. Penny, James
Sterling. "The People's Party Press During Louisiana Political
Upheaval of the Eighteen Nineties." M.A. thesis (Journalism),
Louisiana State U, 1942. 128
pp. Piehler,
Harold Richard. "Henry Vincent: A Case Study in Political
Deviancy." Ph.D. dissertation, American Studies, University of
Kansas, 1971. Vincent and his
brother, Leo, operated the American Nonconformist, a Union
Labor and Populist newspaper. _____. "Henry Vincent: Kansas Populist and Radical-Reform Journalist." Kansas History 1979 2(1): 14-25. A summary of Piehler's Ph.D. dissertation. Vincent was influential in organizing and guiding the People's Party to victory in Cowley County in 1889 and in the state of Kansas in 1890. America: History and Life, 18A:3003 Plested,
Dolores. "Amazing Minnie: A Nineteenth Century Woman of Today." Colorado
Heritage 1984 (1): 18-27. Biography
of Minnie Josephine Reynolds Scalabrino, a journalist for the Denver Rocky
Mountain News, Populist, and suffragette. Rogers,
William Warren. "Alabama's Reform Press: Militant Spokesman for
Agrarian Revolt." Agricultural History. 34(2):62-70. April
1960.
Alliance and Populist-supported began appearing in 1887. Many of the papers were short-lived because farmers could not
afford them and advertisers avoided them.
Generally, they called for ballot-box reform, free silver, and
greater opportunities for the agricultural class.
Lists a number of reform papers. _____. "Colonel James M. Whitehead, Agrarian Editor of the Deep South." Alabama Historical Quarterly 1963 25(3/4): 280-286. Colonel James M. Whitehead edited the Greenville, Alabama, Living Truth, the "most bombastic" of the state's reform (Populist) papers. He was elected president of the Alabama Reform Press Association in 1895. The Living Truth reached the height of its popularity after 1896, as other reform papers closed. America: History and Life, 3:871 Russ, William
A., Jr. "Godkin Looks at Western Agrarianism: A Case Study." Agricultural
History. 19:233-42. October 1945. How E.L. Godkin and the Nation
treated the Populists. Schwantes,
Carlos A. "Washington State's Pioneer Labor-Reform Press: A
Bibliographical Essay and Annotated Checklist." Pacific Northwest
Quarterly 1980 71(3): 112-126. Newspapers
played an important role in the Washington labor movement from the 1880's
through World War I. Provides
an annotated checklist of Populist and other labor papers. Seiler, William H. "Magazine Writers Look at Kansas, 1854-1904." Kansas Historical Quarterly 1972 38(1): 1-42. Examines 80 articles on Kansas that appeared in more than 35 journals during the first 50 years of Kansas history. Topics included slavery, local politics, territorial strife, Populism, geography, geology, social life, natural resources, flora, fauna, and prohibition. America: History and Life, 10:3757 Smith, Robert
W. "The People's Party Paper and Georgia's Tom
Watson." Journalism Quarterly. 42(1):110-11. 1965. Treats
paper founded by Watson, Nov. 1892-1894, cir. approx
20,000. Did Watson go
broke? Why did the
paper fail? America: History and
Life, 2:1466 Summersell,
Charles Grayson. "Kolb and the Populist Revolt as Viewed by
Newspapers." Alabama Historical Quarterly. 19:375-94.
Fall-Winter 1957. On
the career of Reuben Francis Kolb and campaigns of 1890 in Alabama. Sweeney,
Michael S. "'The Desire for the Sensational': Coxey's Army and the
Argus-Eyed Demons of Hell." Journalism History 1997 23(3):
114-125. Examines how Carl
Browne and Jacob Coxey worked with reporters to present an image of the
march that was both sensational and sympathetic.
The sensational coverage, however, undermined serious consideration
Coxey's proposals. Walker, Samuel. "George Howard Gibson, Christian Socialist Among the Populists." Nebraska History 1974 55(4): 553-572. Gibson served as editor of the Populist official organ in Nebraska, the Alliance-Independent (which he renamed the Wealth Makers) from October 1893 to January 1896. He proved to be too extreme for most Nebraska Populists, who wished to stress free-silver and fusion. He relinquished his editorship of the paper to lead a group of Nebraskans to found the Christian Commonwealth Colony in Georgia. America: History and Life, 12A:1780 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 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. Werner, Jane.
"The Press and the Populists." Colorado Magazine 1970
47(1): 44-61. Thomas
Patterson's Rocky Mountain News strongly supported the Populist
ticket and was emulated by local weeklies in smaller communities. However,
free silver was the real reason for the Populist victory in Colorado. The
newspapers were following the popular trend rather than leading it. |