The Making of the Populist Movement: State, Market, and Party on the Western Frontier

When it comes to explaining the origins of electoral populism in the United States, we often look to the characteristics and conditions of voters, overlooking the reasons why populist candidates emerge in the first place. In The Making of the Populist Movement, Adam Slez argues that the rise of electoral populism in the American West was a strategic response to a political environment in which the configuration of positions was literally locked in place, precluding the success of new contenders or otherwise marginal competitors. Combining traditional forms of historical inquiry with innovations in network analysis and spatial statistics, he shows how the expansion of state and market drove the push for market regulation in southern Dakota, where an insurgent farmers' movement looked to third-party alternatives as a means of affecting change. In the context of western settlement, the struggle for political power was synonymous with the struggle for position in an emerging urban hierarchy. As inequities in the spatial distribution of resources became more pronounced, appeals to agrarian populism became a powerful political tool with which to wage partisan war. Offering a fresh take on the origins of electoral populism in the United States, The Making of the Populist Movement contributes to our understanding of political action by explicitly linking the evolution of the political field to the transformation of physical space through concerted action on the part of elites.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements 1 Introduction I The Expansion of State and Market 2 Divide and Conquer 3 Making Markets II The Response 4 Getting Organized 5 Getting Thwarted 6 Getting Partisan III Legacies and Lessons 7 Conclusion References Index

About the Author :
Adam Slez is Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, where he joined the faculty in 2013. His previous work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, Sociological Methods and Research, Socius, and the International Journal of Comparative Sociology.

Review :
Recommended. Adam Slez offers a genuinely new and convincing explanation for the rise and fall of populism in late nineteenth century America. His analysis offers an original framework for thinking about populist movements more broadly, including those of the left and right today, and for understanding how elites draw on spatial and organizational resources to defuse mass movements and harness voters to elite interests. This book will help historians and social scientists reinvigorate their thinking and research on social movements." -Richard Lachmann, Professor Sociology, University at Albany- SUNY More than a century before blue and red states defined US political geography, a wave of populism emerged along spatial divisions on the Great Plains. Slez's incisive book offers a novel explanation as to how the late 19th century 'populist moment' was rooted in questions about the legitimacy of the political game and the economics of western settlement." -Martin Ruef, Jack and Pamela Egan Professor, Duke University Adam Slez offers a novel understanding of the origins of electoral populism by situating it in relation to competing positions in the broader political field. The Making of the Populist Movement promises to become the definitive sociological account of a pivotal moment in American political history. Those who want to understand populism in the present are well advised to seek guidance from this history lesson." -Henning Hillmann, University of Mannheim In The Making of the Populist Movement, Adam Slez provides a fresh analysis of a critical moment in American politics. Focused on South Dakota, a hotspot of populist organizing in the 1890s, Slez carefully reconstructs the development of a market for grain and a political field centered on office-holding. The result is a compelling analysis of populism as the flip side of the politics of party elites." -Elisabeth S. Clemens, author of Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State