History of the American West - HIST 362 Resource Guide: Politics

This site focuses on the study of the modern American West. It features academic works on energy policy, economic theory, land use, and various social interactions in history. Includes reports and essays, curriculum materials, and information about projects such as "Ranchland Dynamics" and a conference on environmental justice.

Populism was the major third-party movement of the 1890s. Until recently populism was considered by historians as the culmination of a quarter-century of western and southern agrarian unrest triggered by the passing of the frontier in the late nineteenth century. Increasingly, studies have demonstrated that the movement accommodated greater diversity of thought than was once supposed and that its origins embraced more than was usually conveyed by the frontier explanation.

Progressivism emerged in the late nineteenth century out of attempts by various groups in society to reconcile such cultural values as free enterprise and individualism with changing social and economic realities. In the process, Progressive Era reformers and activists not only remade society but often reconstituted themselves as well. Identifying who the Progressives were (and who they were not) or identifying their ideas, assumptions, purposes, and rhetoric that went into the larger, overlapping reform projects has proven to be very difficult.

The taking of the law into one’s own hands through the instrument of some type of extralegal committee has been part of the American experience since colonial days. It has taken various forms, ranging from unorganized mobs to quasi-military groups and operating under such names as Regulators, Moderators, Minutemen, and White Caps. Other groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, have incorporated vigilante functions into their activities. Although generally a rural phenomenon, some of the most notorious manifestations of vigilantism have occurred in cities.