Populism, Its Rise and Fall

by William A. Peffer, Peter H. Argersinger (Editor)

Before it was "Populism," the great reform movement of the 1890s was often called "Pefferism" after its most prominent leader, Kansas editor William Peffer. Peffer's Populism, Its Rise and Fall is the only significant memoir by a major Populist figure.

The Populist movement arose as a revolt against the special privileges of industrialism and the American banking system. It spread quickly throughout the Midwest and South and reached its zenith with the founding of the People's party in the early 1890s. William Peffer chaired the national conference that organized the People's party and was the party's first U.S. senator and president of its National Reform Press Association.

Peffer's memoir, written in 1899 but discovered decades later, offers a unique insider's view of the Populist movement. Peffer describes the development of Populism, the political maneuverings and campaign practices of the People's party, the effect of the famous silver movement on the critical election of 1896, and the behind-the-scenes conflicts and disagreements that ultimately led to the dissolution of America's last great third party.

Populism, Its Rise and Fall includes the complete text of this singular memoir, transcribed, edited, and annotated by Peter H. Argersinger, a leading scholar of the Populist movement. Argersinger's introductory essay and extensive annotation evoke America at the turn of the century and place Peffer's memoir in the context of the times, at the vortex of the forces that shaped and ultimately destroyed Populism.

"There are other Populist memoirs, but none from such a central figure as Peffer, and none from a key Kansas Populist. This book will be of note to scholars with general interests in the Gilded Age, as well as to specialists in Populism and farm activism."—Tom Isern, author of Bull Threshers and Harvesting and Threshing on the North American Plains and coauthor of A Commonplace of the Great Plains .

"Beyond doubt, Peffer was one of the more significant leaders produced by the Populist movement. This memoir is useful in helping us to understand the course he followed, which has remained something of an enigma."—Gene Clanton, author of Kansas Ideas and Men .

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[William Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Dissertation reading)

Peffer’s writing style is very bland and clinical, but to be honest it was very effective. He condensed a lot of information into 200 pages and it was relatively easy to absorb.

His anti Democrat rants got a bit tiresome, and for someone who was so strongly anti-fusion and stressed the importance of third party politics, he didn’t have much in the way of criticism of Republicanism, with the final few pages feeling like he was advocating the dissolution of the Pops into the GOP.

A really useful primary source showing the sentiments of a through and through Populist rather than just a party politician, and very helpful for building my understanding of the movement before the mess of its historiography in the twentieth century.

[Frank Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's perhaps unfair to criticize this book. Its editor, Peter Argersinger, has done an admirable job footnoting and clarifying the confusing passages, and providing context for the story within, but ultimately, this remains what it was originally, an overlong series of newspaper articles published in the Chicago Tribune in 1899 and written by William Peffer, a man whom even his friends admitted preferred to talk of mathematical parabolas and catenaries rather than stories. Yet its well worth a look.

For one, Peffer was the first man in the US Senate, after his election by the Kansas Legislature in 1890, to call himself a "Populist" and a devotee of the new "People's Party." His flowing beard and radical views made him a favorite of satirists, who also identified him as synonymous with his party and creed, which some even labelled "Pefferism."

So this is a rare inside look at how Populism emerged and how it collapsed, by one of its most important figures, and it provides many insights one won't get from most histories of the era. One takeaway is the central importance of conventions and meetings in this era before easy communication technology. The names of the 1889 St. Louis convention of the Farmer's Alliance, the Ocala convention of 1890, the Cincinnati convention of 1891, and finally the Omaha convention in 1892 are repeated like dates of famous battles in Peffer's telling, where the fundamental and "holy" beliefs of the populist creed were forged and preached. The fights at these conventions defined the early populists as voters obsessed with anti-monopoly struggles and financial reforms. After all, Peffer shows that a good portion of those who attended these were Midwesterners with Union Labor or Greenback party roots.

But this book is written mainly to highlight two causes of the fall of the populist movement, causes that also get short shrift in many tellings. One is the all important role of party loyalties. Peffer, himself a former Republican, spends a good chunk of the book explaining why Populism fits more in his old camp than in the Democratic camp, and time and again he laments that "fusion" attempts in Southern states to ally the Populists with the Democrats, which ultimately led to Populists being submerged. The second crucial cause for the end of Populism Peffer highlights was the silver agitation. While the 1892 Omaha resolutions were the first by a major party to call for unlimited minting of silver at 16 to 1 for gold, there were many other focuses, yet, after the panic and economic collapse of the next year, mining interests and far western Senators hijacked the party and turned in into a singular vehicle for silver coins, which led them into their endorsement of the Democratic candidacy of Bryan in 1896. Peffer much laments this course, but as of 1899 was still hoping to restore Populist independence.

So this provides a singular look at populist congressional and presidential politics from one of its most important practitioners, but it deals far too much with local Kansas political battles and statistical tables of voting rolls. This book then is valuable addition for the scholar of the era, but perhaps is worth a flip-through for those peripherally curious about it.