After Populism: The Agrarian Left on the Northern Plains, 1900–1960

Few people would think of communism at the mention of rural “red states,” yet left-wing radicalism had an outsized influence in northern plains farm organizations, especially in Montana, the Dakotas, and Nebraska in the first half of the twentieth century. William C. Pratt, professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska Omaha, uncovers the role of rural radicals from multiple angles and within the broader context of the left-liberal alliance. Left-wing radicals, according to Pratt, either identified as socialists or communists or “sought major changes in the existing economic order beyond what the mainstream of historic progressivism or the New Deal attempted” (5). In After Populism, Pratt examines the relationship between left-wing radicals and left-of-center farm groups and their breakup at the onset of the Cold War.After Populism appears to be a monograph but is essentially a collection of articles Pratt published between 1985 and 2014. All but two of the fourteen chapters previously appeared in academic journals but have been “adapted” for the book. As a result, After Populism seems disconnected in the middle. The first seven chapters share a common methodology, thematic focus, and periodization, distinct from the later chapters, which generally have their own unity. The book could avert confusion if separated into two sections with a brief explanation linking them together.In the first several chapters, Pratt narrates the travails and joys of grassroots research. Searching for scraps of information, he traversed long dirt roads, conducted oral interviews, combed through small courthouse records, and visited forgotten graveyards. Under the Freedom of Information Act, Pratt acquired Federal Bureau of Investigation records that provided surveillance information on some of his subjects. Research at the Russian State Archives in Moscow connected communist activities in the region to the Comintern.The first half of After Populism focuses on the period from 1900 to the 1930s. Pratt illustrates the strength of the Socialist Party but cautions that most people who voted socialist mainly did so as a means to express dissatisfaction with the status quo rather than because of a commitment to its ideology. After World War I, the Socialist Party all but died out as members opted for the Nonpartisan League or one of several communist parties. Pratt views the 1924 elections as a major blow to radicalism on the northern plains because Progressive Party candidate Robert LaFollette distanced himself from the budding farmer-labor movement. Next, he examines the farm revolt of the early 1930s, highlighting the interaction between the United Farmers League—a communist front group—and the Farmers' Holiday Association. In some counties the United Farmers League dominated the farm revolt, while in others it worked alongside the Farmers' Holiday Association. In addition to the popularity of New Deal programs, Pratt finds that factionalism played a significant role in the collapse of radicalism in the early 1930s. He also chronicles the activities of three local women farm revolt leaders and explores the creation of left-leaning third parties in the prairie provinces of Canada as compared with those in the US plains.Picking up after World War II, the later chapters consider the National Farmers Union (NFU) leadership, especially highlighting the role of North Dakota Farmers Union president Glenn Talbott, as it tried to maintain a popular front alliance in the late 1940s. Pratt analyzes the relationship between the NFU leadership and Henry Wallace during his bid for president in 1948 and notes that although NFU leaders privately endorsed him, they declined to do so publicly in part because it would open their organization to charges of communism. A brief chapter documents the extensive FBI surveillance of real and suspected communists in the upper Midwest before detailing the NFU's move to the political center and the attacks on it by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, the Farm Bureau, and others on the right. Pratt concludes with a comparison of the 1980s farm crisis to the farm revolt of the 1930s.Scholars unfamiliar with Pratt's work will appreciate the grassroots level treatment of radicalism on the northern plains. Pratt adds a level of complexity by showing the diversity of background and opinion in some counties and towns in multiple states. He also extends the timeline of the decline of the radical rural Left into the 1950s.Though most of the findings in After Populism are already a part of the scholarly record, this volume brings together decades of work that helps explain the demise of the agrarian left in the northern plains and the many factors involved in farmers' political and economic calculus.

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