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A Reappraisal of the Causes of Farm Protest in the United States, 1870–1900

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  • Mayhew, Anne

Abstract

Between 1870 and 1900 American farmers organized in the Grange, the Alliances, and the Peoples (Populist) Party and protested against a variety of economic ills. Economic historians have generally explained the farm organizations and the protests in the same way that the farmers themselves explained them—in terms of low agricultural prices and high costs of inputs resulting in part from the monopolistic organization of the suppliers of those inputs. However, there now exists considerable evidence indicating that the economic conditions of the time were not: as the farmers depicted them, thus raising two questions: (1) if the farmers' statements about their economic state cannot be accepted as historical fact, then why were the farmers so angry? and (2) why did they choose to protest the issues which they did?

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  • Mayhew, Anne, 1972. "A Reappraisal of the Causes of Farm Protest in the United States, 1870–1900," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(2), pages 464-475, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:32:y:1972:i:02:p:464-475_06
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexander Klein & Karl Gunnar Persson & Paul Sharp, 2023. "Populism and the first wave of globalization: Evidence from the 1892 US presidential election," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 163-202.
    2. Jon D. Wisman & Matthew E. Davis, 2013. "Degraded Work, Declining Community, Rising Inequality, and the Transformation of the Protestant Ethic in America: 1870–1930," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(5), pages 1075-1105, November.
    3. Thomas F. Cooley & Steven J. DeCanio, 1974. "Varying-Parameter Supply Functions and the Sources of Economic Distress in American Agriculture, 1866-1914," NBER Working Papers 0057, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eric Rauchway, 2006. "The Role of Federalism in Developing the US during Nineteenth-century Globalization," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-72, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Jacks, David S., 2007. "Populists versus theorists: Futures markets and the volatility of prices," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 342-362, April.
    6. Skully, David W., 1990. "Government Intervention in Agriculture: A Regulatory Approach," Staff Reports 278332, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

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