HILD 2A-B-C Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: William Jennings Bryan, L. Frank Baum, Cash Crop
19 Mar 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
1900- wizard of oz by l frank baum story connection. Saw suffering of american failure in late 19th century; saw rise of populist movement. Baum became active supporter of populist candidate. When published novel, intended to also act as a commentary/allegory to populism. Growing power of business in federal government meant hard times for workers class conflict. Even harder for midwest and south farmers, especially yeoman farmers. Suffered from high tariffs which made manufactured goods higher price. But good for big companies because had to buy local made. Prices for raw material (cotton, wheat) aka the farmers(cid:821) products were now sold at reduced prices. Also suffered from droughts in 1880s and 1890s. Farmers borrowed money from merchants and banks and had to pay high interest rate. If farmers tried to sell land, they(cid:821)d be almost worthless because of how bad the land quality was. Seemed like no matter how hard farmers worked, only northeast manufacturers were successful.
