11. Alliance Lending Library          

Source:  American Nonconformist (Winfield, KS), July 9, 1891

Late nineteenth century egalitarian third parties, such as the Greenback, Union labor, and Populist parties, grew out of nominally non-partisan producer groups like the Grange, Knights of Labor, and Farmers' Alliances, respectively.  Pivotal to farmer radicalism was the conviction that non-producers had rigged the economic system through its control of politics.  If mainstream politicians misled voters with sham battles over meaningless issues, as Populist leaders charged, then educating citizens as to how the economic and political system really worked was the obvious solution for Alliancemen.  An informed citizenry is the bulwark of democracy.  The Southern Farmers' Alliance was the most important non-political organization involved in founding the People's Party. 

Populist authors produced a large number of book-length treatises during the late nineteenth century.  Authors who affiliated with the People's Party included Edward Bellamy (who wrote Looking Backward), Ignatius Donnelly (who wrote Caesar's Column), and Terence Powderly (Grand Master Workman or president) of the Knights of Labor.  Populists also read books with a Populistic bent by non-Populists, such as Henry George's Progress and Poverty. 

For more on the Southern Farmers' Alliance, see:

Goodwyn, Lawrence C. Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America. New York, Oxford U P, 1976.  Abridged as The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America. New York, Oxford U P, 1978.

McMath, Robert C., Jr. American Populism: A Social History, 1877-1898. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.

          . Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P,                   1975.

Schwartz, Michael H. Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890. 302 p. New York: Academic P, 1976.

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