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The Limits of Agrarian Radicalism

Western Populism and American Politics

Petr H. Argersinger

312 pages, 6 x 9
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-0702-0, $29.95

Book Cover ImageAs Ross Perot proved in 1992, even when funded by a bottomless bank account, American third parties have always struggled in their efforts to achieve recognition and political power. Yet even in defeat their contributions to national politics have been substantial. That, Peter Argersinger contends, was certainly true of the Populists a century earlier.

Argersinger, one of our nation's foremost historians of the Populist era, brings together in this volume some of his best and most influential essays--ranging from a study of a single election campaign to complex analyses of political organizations, legislative behavior, and government institutions. Together they amply display his consistently sharp and wide-ranging insights on this important moment in American life.

Argersinger examines, among other things, the Populists' evolution in electoral politics, from creating a party to running election campaigns; the enormous obstacles they overcame in the process of electing a U.S. Senator; specific laws and procedures that suppressed Populism's full political participation; hardwon successes in Western state legislatures in the face of powerful enemies and numerous internal disputes; and the Populists' long-standing struggles and frustrations with the U.S Congress.

Throughout Argersinger illuminates the fundamental ways in which Populism challenged our political system and brings to life its volatile personalities, dramatic controversies, visionary programs, and enduring frustrations. (So frustrating that an Oklahoma Populist once pulled a gun on the Speaker of the House who kept refusing to recognize his request to speak to the assembly.)

Of special interest to political, social, rural, Western, and Gilded Age historians, this book provides a timely reminder of the political constraints on third parties in America.

"For over a quarter century Argersinger has explored western Populism with an honest, evenhanded approach notable for its credible scholarship, enduring value, increasing influence, and lack of ideological posturing. These essays are of uniformly high quality and tell a good story."--Robert C. McMath, Jr., author of American Populsim: A Social History

"Argersinger has done more than anyone else to help us understand the Populists in the political context (and within the political boundaries) of the places and time in which they operated. A beacon of sound, well-conceived, and insightful scholarship, this volume makes some important Populist scholarship more conveniently accessible."--David Danbom, author of The World of Hope: Progressives and the Struggle for an Ethical Life

PETER H. ARGERSINGER is Presidential Research Professor of History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the author of Populism and Politics: William A. Peffer and the People's Party and Structure, Process, and Party and editor of Populism, Its Rise and Fall.