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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