Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men

Because Kansas has been called “the leading Midwestern Populist state,” and the Midwestern phrase was the principle one of this significant movement in American history, this first comprehensive history of the Kansas People’s party, its leaders, and their thoughts and actions is an important addition to Populist historiography. Through this study of the leadership, as well as a complete and personal background analysis of the Populist and Republican members of five Kansas legislatures, the author helps to place Populism within its proper historical context. Although Kansas Populism is shown to have had a retrogressive strain, the pervasive force of the movement is revealed as a constructive and progressive response to the technological achievements that had revolutionized agriculture and industry over the course of the nineteenth century. Their answers were not always commendable, but the Populists were the first political activists to come to grips in an effective manner with the problems created by the continuing economic revolution that uniquely characterizes modern history, and they were “intent on demonstrating, apparently, that the purification of politics was not an iridescent dream.” In the dialogue which they conducted, in the program which they advance, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that continues in our own time. Undertaken with the objective of testing recent controversial interpretations of the Populist movement, this book, according to one reader, “far surpasses” studies of Populism in other states “done long ago and innocent of modern methods.” It contains passages “almost epigrammatic in their perceptiveness” and is notable for the author’s “fairness in dealing with the evidence.” In fact, the breadth of research and the extensive annotation and bibliographical material included make this volume an important source in itself. Description O. Gene Clanton (1934’2017) was professor emeritus of history at Washington State University, where he taught for 29 years. This is his first of several books on populism. Jeff Wells is associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He serves as the associate editor of the Middle West Review and his articles on Populism have appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, South Dakota History, and Nebraska History. With a New Foreword by Jeff Wells. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1009/thumbnail.jp

Review of \u3ci\u3eJohn Brown to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas History\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Virgil W. Dean

For nearly half of its existence as a political entity, it would seem that Kansas was assigned a larger-thanlife role on the national stage and-arguably-was on the right side of history, or at least aspired to be on the side of a common humanity; since then, especially from the 1920s and New Deal eras to the present, one might contend the state has been lodged within a backwater of time, in need of a new crop of leaders capable of dealing with modern exigencies. But according to this study\u27s introductory essay, this commodity seems in short supply at present .... Apparently this examination of the lives of twentysix Kansans was suggested, in part, by a desire to inspire new leaders as of old, although Senator Sam Brownback and Fred Woodward of the University Press of Kansas were the prime movers and may possibly not be in full accord with the judgment regarding the state\u27s current inferior leaders. Virgil Dean, a native Kansas historian long associated with the state\u27s historical society, is to be commended for putting this impressive collection of original biographical essays together. Under his careful direction, above all because of his bold and innovative choices of subjects, the reader is exposed to a variety of interesting and important Kansans stretching from John Brown to Bob Dole. As an impertinent wag might say, we thus travel from a campaign against slavery to a war against sexual impotence, suggesting the question, What\u27s the Matter with Kansas? Conceding the limitations of biography, the study nonetheless makes an important contribution to understanding the state\u27s history, adding, in fact, a dimension that would otherwise escape our attention, one deriving from the skillful manner in which Dean has selected and then interwoven a coherent tapestry from divergent sources. The biographers- all university professors, save one-include among their number just about everyone of any consequence currently writing on the subject of Kansas history. Although somewhat uneven, the essays are generally quite readable, consistently interesting, and certainly instructive. Pardon my special interest, but I can think of half-a-dozen Kansas Populists whose biographies are more deserving of inclusion than that of Mary Elizabeth Lease, unless of course one aimed to emphasize the negative anti-Populist image, which may well have been the case because, despite all that has been written since 1950s, the old image dies hard. For sure, Lease could not have asked for a more positive spin on her short but spectacular association with the Kansas People\u27s party than that impressively fashioned by Rebecca Edwards. In my view, Edwards\u27s essay is among the very best of the lot: we all look forward to the publication of her larger study of the Kansas stemwinder. Just as impressive are the essays by H. Roger Grant, Sally M. Miller, M. H. Hoeflich, and Milton S. Katz, who treated the lives of Frederick Harvey, Kate Richards O\u27Hare, Esther Brown, and Emanuel and Marcet Haldeman-Julius respectively. The last of these certainly brings back memories, since this reviewer is old enough to remember Haldeman-Julius patronizing the Pittsburg, Kansas, restaurant where he worked as a cleanup boy back in the early 1950s. A number of others are just as impressive. Still others are afflicted with shortcomings that will not be detailed here. The bottom line: this is a welcome and admirable study of Kansas\u27s colorful and instructive history fashioned by the best writers available on the subject

Kansas Populism: Ideas and Men

O. Gene Clanton (1934’2017) was professor emeritus of history at Washington State University, where he taught for 29 years. This is his first of several books on populism. Jeff Wells is associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He serves as the associate editor of the Middle West Review and his articles on Populism have appeared in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, South Dakota History, and Nebraska History.With a New Foreword by Jeff Wells.This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.Because Kansas has been called “the leading Midwestern Populist state,” and the Midwestern phrase was the principle one of this significant movement in American history, this first comprehensive history of the Kansas People’s party, its leaders, and their thoughts and actions is an important addition to Populist historiography. Through this study of the leadership, as well as a complete and personal background analysis of the Populist and Republican members of five Kansas legislatures, the author helps to place Populism within its proper historical context. Although Kansas Populism is shown to have had a retrogressive strain, the pervasive force of the movement is revealed as a constructive and progressive response to the technological achievements that had revolutionized agriculture and industry over the course of the nineteenth century. Their answers were not always commendable, but the Populists were the first political activists to come to grips in an effective manner with the problems created by the continuing economic revolution that uniquely characterizes modern history, and they were “intent on demonstrating, apparently, that the purification of politics was not an iridescent dream.” In the dialogue which they conducted, in the program which they advance, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that continues in our own time. Undertaken with the objective of testing recent controversial interpretations of the Populist movement, this book, according to one reader, “far surpasses” studies of Populism in other states “done long ago and innocent of modern methods.” It contains passages “almost epigrammatic in their perceptiveness” and is notable for the author’s “fairness in dealing with the evidence.” In fact, the breadth of research and the extensive annotation and bibliographical material included make this volume an important source in itself

Kansas Populism

Because Kansas has been called “the leading Midwestern Populist state,” and the Midwestern phrase was the principle one of this significant movement in American history, this first comprehensive history of the Kansas People’s party, its leaders, and their thoughts and actions is an important addition to Populist historiography. Through this study of the leadership, as well as a complete and personal background analysis of the Populist and Republican members of five Kansas legislatures, the author helps to place Populism within its proper historical context.Although Kansas Populism is shown to have had a retrogressive strain, the pervasive force of the movement is revealed as a constructive and progressive response to the technological achievements that had revolutionized agriculture and industry over the course of the nineteenth century. Their answers were not always commendable, but the Populists were the first political activists to come to grips in an effective manner with the problems created by the continuing economic revolution that uniquely characterizes modern history, and they were “intent on demonstrating, apparently, that the purification of politics was not an iridescent dream.” In the dialogue which they conducted, in the program which they advance, they assisted in launching a progressive quest that continues in our own time.Undertaken with the objective of testing recent controversial interpretations of the Populist movement, this book, according to one reader, “far surpasses” studies of Populism in other states “done long ago and innocent of modern methods.” It contains passages “almost epigrammatic in their perceptiveness” and is notable for the author’s “fairness in dealing with the evidence.” In fact, the breadth of research and the extensive annotation and bibliographical material included make this volume an important source in itself