Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890

By Michael Schwartz

Book Overview

"Michael Schwartz's book is really three books in one--an analysis of the structural changes that produced one of the most oppressive social systems the world has known (the one-crop cotton tenancy economy and the system of institutionalized racism and authoritarian one-party politics that was required to preserve the fragile economic arrangement); a theoretical analysis of the origins, mobilization, and outcome of insurgent challenges; and a meticulous application of that theory to the rise and collapse of the Populist movement."--Craig Jenkins, Theory and Society

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226742350
• ISBN13: 9780226742359
• Release Date: July 1988
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A classic

I agree with Michael from NY. Schwartz's sudy is a superb analysis of farm tennancy and the dynamics of protest in late 19th century South. Schwartz's methodology and thesis have been assailed by many historians of this era in southern history but no one can deny that his analysis is grounded in the primary sources and offers an insight into the tennancy system that few studies of this phenomenon can match.

An Neglected Classic

After reading this, I could not help but scratch my head and ask myself why it is that this isn't more prominant in social movement theory / political sociology. The book provides an excellent framework for thinking about collective action and the logic of the emergence, and rise or decline of movements for radical change from below. This should be standard reading for undergrad/graduate students studying social movements and/or political processes.