The Politics of Populism

Germany and the American South in the 1890s

Bibliographic Data

ID2107745
AuthorsDavid Peal (corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume31
Issue2
Pages340-362
Publication date1989-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417500015851
OpenAlexW2075174538
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited49

A Populist newspaper in North Carolina commented in 1890 that agrarian unrest was common just about everywhere, in 'high tariff and low tariff' countries as well as in 'monarchies, empires, and republics.' Historians of this discontent have neglected the international dimension of protest that was so striking at the time. The countries that produced the most vigorous agrarian movements, Germany and the United States, have been especially well protected from the scrutiny of comparison. One reason for this neglect is that scholars in both countries emphasize their nations' peculiarities and capacity to make their own histories. The most influential study of American Populism, for instance, is still John D. Hicks' The Populist Revolt (1931). Hicks ascribed the movement to the closure of the frontier, the 'safety valve' once thought to be the special feature of American history. Most scholars today reject the 'Turner thesis,' but continue to see populism as uniquely democratic. Just as American Populists have been celebrated as 'good guys,' German agrarian leaders have been demonized. The marked anti-Semitic aspect of agrarian movements in the 1890s has led historians to link them more or less directly to national socialism, the arguably unique 'outcome' of German history. Whatever the sources of this exceptionalism, the constrained view has distorted the understanding of a crucial historical conjuncture

Agrarian society · Democracy · Economic history · Exceptionalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Anarchism and Radical Politics · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub