Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas

Agrarian radicalism's challenge to capitalism played a central role in working-class ideology while making third parties and protest movements a potent force in politics. Thomas Alter II follows three generations of German immigrants in Texas to examine the evolution of agrarian radicalism and the American and transnational ideas that influenced it. Otto Meitzen left Prussia for Texas in the wake of the failed 1848 Revolution. His son and grandson took part in decades-long activism with organizations from the Greenback Labor Party and the Grange to the Populist movement and Texas Socialist Party. As Alter tells their stories, he analyzes the southern wing of the era's farmer-labor bloc and the parallel history of African American political struggle in Texas. Alliances with Mexican revolutionaries, Irish militants, and others shaped an international legacy of working-class radicalism that moved U.S. politics to the left. That legacy, in turn, pushed forward economic reform during the Progressive and New Deal eras. A rare look at the German roots of radicalism in Texas, Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth illuminates the labor movements and populist ideas that changed the nation’s course at a pivotal time in its history.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 What Was Lost in Germany Might, in Texas, Be Won 13 2 Inheritors of the Revolution 45 3 Populist Revolt 75 4 The Battle for Socialism in Texas, 1900–1911 107 5 Tierra y Libertad 135 6 From the Cooperative Commonwealth to the Invisible Empire 171 Conclusion: Descent into New Deal Liberalism 205 Notes 219 Bibliography 251 Index 265 Alter_

About the Author :
Thomas Alter II is an assistant professor in the department of history at Texas State University.

Review :
"A fountain of information. . . Alter does an excellent job of showing the persistence of the agrarian radical impulse." --Southwestern Historical Quarterly "Alter's Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth is a highly readable, extensively researched contribution to our understanding of Southwestern radicalism. Both seasoned scholars and beginning students will benefit." --Western Historical Quarterly "Masterful. . . . Alter's clear writing and well-argued analysis provides students of the Texas Socialist movement a newly congruent foundation. To repeat, this is the book to read first." --Kyle Wilkinson, Labor Online