The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850-1890

by Steven Hahn

Attempts to explain how small Southern farmers became involved in the Populist movement and looks at the effects of the Civil War on Southern agriculture

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, American

400 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 1985

About the author

Steven Hahn is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor in American History at the University of Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really, really enjoyed this book! Hahn took statistical info from 2 counties in Georgia upcountry & used the data to extrapolate some bigger political themes in the after-reconstruction/redeemer period. I learned a lot. It was really neat to see how the populists came to fruition from this very tenuous place between the southern dems & the radical republicans, mostly based on race & family/neighbor connections. Very cool to learn how the upcountry was forced to move from independent subsistence farming to mostly cotton economy too.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carefully crafted, deep analysis of two counties in Upcountry Georgia, 1850-1890. Explores the region’s experience with secession, the Confederacy, and the rise of a modern capitalist economy. Shows that the failure of Populism in the 1890s was due to trends decades in the making. Deep dive into poor farmers and their artisan republicanism.

[Lynn Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm honestly torn. I learned a lot from this book, not only about a southern demographic I didn't have much awareness of prior to reading it, but also about how cotton took over even more of the South *after* the Civil War and how that change, in its turn, led to the cultural and economic upheaval that made conditions ripe for populist revolt near the turn of the twentieth century. And I absolutely can't fault the sheer tonnage of carefully-cited, predominantly quantitative research Hahn did, but therein lies the problem: the book mostly reads like extensive research notes, with very little connective tissue. So I learned a lot, but it was definitely a slog.