This engrossing narrative chronicles the period immediately following the collapse of the Greenback-Labor Party in the 1880s and the subsequent rise of Populism a few years later. Originating in the Midwest and the South as a political response to the increasingly painful economic distress of the nation's farmers, the Populist Party-the most powerful agrarian movement in American history-achieved major-party status in several states while electing governors in Colorado, Kansas, and South Dakota. In addition to winning nearly 400 state legislative races and holding five seats in the U.S....

One of the most eventful and turbulent periods in American history, Richardson's latest volume in this series covers the period from the height of the Progressive Era, when Theodore Roosevelt, the wildly popular, bigger-than-life former President snorted and thundered against the country's two major parties while trying to reclaim the White House on his newly-formed Bull Moose Party. The years immediately prior to World War I also witnessed a broad movement for socialism in the United States, a period when the Socialist Party, boasting more than 119,000 dues-paying members and a vibrant press...