Praise for Forgotten Populists

Steve Babson’s engagingly written and splendidly illustrated history of the late 19th century Populist movement recalls for us their remarkable commitment to democracy and racial justice, and their hostility to corporate power. This movement of farmers – and workers! – came to define and advance much that constituted 20th century liberalism. Babson thereby rescues the populist idea from the racist and authoritarian connotations with which it has been saddled in recent decades.

--Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California / Santa Barbara

“Pundits may say that the misguided populism of America’s rural poor explains the rise of Trump and his hijacking of our democracy, but Steve Babson’s deeply engaging and powerful rescuing of the movement’s real history makes it clear that Populism was a radical challenge to oligarchy and corporate greed. It was a movement that must be remembered— along with the possibility of its reawakening.

--Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

Forgotten Populists couldn’t be appearing at a more timely—actually urgent—moment. It’s a superb short book that looks at the Populist challenge to corporate greed and monied interests in the politics of 1890s America. The term ‘populist’ has been distorted and misused for decades and Babson shows why. He writes clearly, sharply, and passionately, and the book is especially timely for understanding the present and the future.

--Harley Shaiken, Professor Emeritus, University of California / Berkeley