Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917

by Sanders, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780226734774
• ISBN10: 0226734773
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Roots of Reformoffers a sweeping revision of our understanding of the rise of the regulatory state in the late nineteenth century. Sanders argues that politically mobilized farmers were the driving force behind most of the legislation that increased national control over private economic power. She demonstrates that farmers from the South, Midwest, and West reached out to the urban laborers who shared their class position and their principal antagonist--northeastern monopolistic industrial and financial capital--despite weak electoral support from organized labor. Based on new evidence from legislative records and other sources, Sanders shows that this tenuous alliance of "producers versus plutocrats" shaped early regulatory legislation, remained powerful through the populist and progressive eras, and developed a characteristic method of democratic state expansion with continued relevance for subsequent reform movements. Roots of Reformis essential reading for anyone interested in this crucial period of American political development.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
PART I: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
Core and Periphery in the American Economy	13	(17)
Labor Organizations and the State, 1873-1912	30	(71)
Farmers in Politics, 1873-1896	101	(47)
Agrarian Politics and Parties after 1896	148	(31)
PART II: THE AGRARIAN STATIST AGENDA
The Transportation System	179	(38)
Trade, Taxation, Banking, and Credit	217	(50)
Antitrust and the Structure of the Marketing Network	267	(47)
Federal Aid for Practical Education: Farmers First	314	(26)
The Labor Program of the Farmers' Party	340	(47)
Farmers, Workers, and the Administrative State	387	(22)
Conclusion	409	(12)
Notes	421	(90)
Index	511