Politics & Protest1865-1900

Chapter 21

By Nicole Mastin

Agrarian Unrest

Throughout the late 19th century, as industrialization was booming, farms began to struggle. Farmers started to protest as their agricultural lifestyle was being ignored.

Populism

Eventually, new organizations formed, resulting in the rise of a new political party called Populism. Soon after the election of 1896, this party diminished.

Reform

Reform in areas such as Women’s Rights began to increase.

Socialism grew in the late 1800’s because of Karl Marx.

Illustration #1

This photograph portrays a farmer whose crops have been drought stricken. This is one of the many problems farmers faced in the late 19th century.

Illustration #2

New technologies such as the reaper (left) greatly increased farm production. Thusly, as more crops were harvested, prices declined causing farmers to be economically unstable.

Illustration #3This is an election poster from the election of 1892. Grover Cleveland (left photo) won the election because of the votes of Southern Democrats with Populist principles.

Illustration #4

This logo comes from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. This union was established as one of the early ways women campaigned against prohibition.

Illustration #5This is the socialist manuscript displaying the socialist ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engel's. These men believed that because the capitalist class owned means of production, and the proletariat owned nothing, a class conflict would emerge. Eventually, a classless society would emerge.

Key People

Oliver Hudson Kelley President Grover Cleveland

Susan B. Anthony

Five Major PointsPrecedent established by interstate commerce act-federal Gov. Could control large scale private enterprise if public required it.

Omaha platform was a document established by populists to display dissatisfaction with political corruption, business interests, mortgage burden, and condition of labor.

The American socialist party was founded by Eugene V. Debs. He declared that workers in a democracy could gain control of government and use it to change the free enterprise system.

Henry George promoted a “single tax” on land values. If the land was used efficiently, which rarely happened, value would be put on potential value.

Conspicuous Consumption was a term established by Thorstein Veblen to describe how the upper class uses a large amount of resources to show off.