Rural Democracy : : Family Farmers and Politics in Western Washington, 1890-1925 / / Marilyn P. Watkins.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Watkins, Marilyn P.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2019]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (264 p.) :; 19 b&w illustrations, 5 maps, 16 tables

What happens to social movements in rural settings when they do not face the divisive issues of race and class? Marilyn Watkins examines the stable political climate built by successive waves of Populism, socialism, the farmer-labor movement, and the Grange, in turn-of-the-century western Washington. She shows how all of these movements drew upon the same community base, empowered farmers, and encouraged them in the belief that democracy, independence, and prosperity were realizable goals. Indeed they were—in a setting where agriculture was diversified, farmers were debt-free, and, critically,women enjoyed equal status as activists in social movements.Rural Democracy illuminates the problems that undermined Populism and other forms of rural radicalism in the South and the Midwest by demonstrating the political success of those movements where such problems were notably absent: in Lewis County, Washington. By so doing, Watkins convincingly demonstrates the continuing value of local community studies in understanding the large-scale transformations that continue to sweep over rural America.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: Agrarian Activism, Gender, and Lewis County -- 2. Rural Community Life: Lewis County in the 1890s -- 3. New Visions: Political Culture in the Farmers' Alliance -- 4. Populists and Republicans: National Parties and Local Issues -- 5. Progressive Populists: The Grange in Lewis County -- 6. Specialization and Cooperation: Agricultural Change in the Early Twentieth Century -- 7. A Community in Conflict: The End of Tolerance -- 8. Conclusion -- Notes -- Index