Once identified with the dispossessed, the poor and exploited workers from farm and factory, populism in recent years has been brought to the forefront of the political landscape, embraced by the likes of Ronald Reagan and Jesse Jackson and glibly applied to figures ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Rush Limbaugh.
Kazin calls populism an impulse rather than an ideology. He defines it as a mode of political persuasion that combines anti-elitism, adoration of the common people usually defined as hardworking, pious, and, until quite recently, white , and a belief in the American ideal of democracy that the power brokers in business, government, and academia have betrayed.
Kazin argues that populism has undergone two major transformations since the defeat of the People's Party, the original Populists, in the mids. The first was a split between those who viewed "the people" as a group belonging above all to God and those who viewed ordinary Americans in primarily economic terms. The second, an ongoing shift to the Right, began in the McCarthy era. The movement was transformed by the onset of the Cold War, the ideological mellowing of the labor movement, and the New Left's self-imposed alienation from the American mainstream.
In the s, George Wallace showed how to attract blue-collar Democrats with populist rhetoric. Kazin shows that the Right's conception of a struggling middle class beset by an inept, immoral state remains vigorous and limits what Bill Clinton or anyone to his left can accomplish. The Populist Persuasion unrolls a fascinating narrative of our country's history, richly endowed with examples demonstrating the flexibility of populist rhetoric.
Bringing to life the powerful voices of past leaders, Kazin shows how they both inform the political debates of our own time and point with hope toward a future in which the country will live up to its original democratic ideals. Previews available in: English.
Add another edition? The populist persuasion Michael Kazin. Donate this book to the Internet Archive library. If you own this book, you can mail it to our address below. Borrow Listen. It is as good a road map as we have to the politics of the people who work hard and play by the rules. Earlier populism—especially the People's party of the s—was identified with the Left, concerned to limit economic inequality, committed to the rights of workers as producers, and inclined to regard political society as a moral community, to be judged by essentially religious standards.
Beginning with the antislavery crusade of the s, Kazin skillfully surveys more than a century of mass protests, using imagery and symbolism as his guides. Attractively open-minded.
If more minds were open, fewer of them would be boggled. Power to Which People? Your documents are now available to view. Additional Information. Table of Contents. Cover Download Save contents. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication pp.
Contents pp. Acknowledgments pp. Notes to the Preface pp. Introduction: Speaking for the People pp. Inheritance pp. Power to Which People?
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