Marion Butler and American Populism
By James L. Hunt
360 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 13 illus., notes, bibl., index
-
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-1476-2
Published: March 2014 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-6250-6
Published: November 2003 -
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-6772-8
Published: November 2003
Buy this Book
- Paperback $45.00
- E-Book $29.99
For Professors:
Free E-Exam Copies
The son of North Carolina farmers and a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Butler displayed an early proclivity for agrarian reform. By age twenty-eight he led the Farmers' Alliance of North Carolina; two years later he was elected president of the national Alliance. Butler served in the U.S. Senate as a Populist from 1895 to 1901 and was chairman of the national Populist Party during the critical presidential elections of 1896 and 1900. In 1896 he helped engineer the remarkable collaboration in which Populist Tom Watson ran for vice president alongside Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan.
Departing from earlier portrayals of Butler as a political opportunist, Hunt shows him to be a genuine reformer who upheld Populist tenets in the face of enormous opposition from Democrats, Republicans, and even members of his own party. A dynamic individual with enormous capacity to mobilize and motivate, Butler sought throughout his career to convert his reform ideals, through politics, into law. His long and, ultimately, losing efforts illuminate the limitations of Populism as an ideology and as a political movement.
About the Author
James L. Hunt is associate professor of law at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
For more information about James L. Hunt, visit
the
Author
Page.
Reviews
"[An] interesting new study of a gifted but nearly forgotten American politician."--Washington Post Book World
"An exceptionally well-grounded study of probably the most historically neglected figure in American Populism."--American Historical Review
"A must-read book."--Journal of American History
"Beautifully written, well researched, and a welcome addition to the literature on southern political life and American Populism. . . . All scholars interested in third-party politics, Populism, and southern history should read this stimulating book."--Journal of Southern History
"James Hunt has done a superb job with this first biography of Marion Butler, which breaks new ground in the historiography of the Populist movement."--North Carolina Historical Review
"A full-scale biography of Marion Butler, North Carolina's leading Populist, is long overdue. James L. Hunt's thoroughly researched and skillfully written biography provides a welcome corrective to earlier historians who underestimated the Populist senator's contribution to the reform movement of the 1890s."--Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary, North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Quick Links
Related Books
