Righteous Indignation: Religion and the Populist Revolution

by Joe Creech

Righteous Indignation uncovers what motivated conservative, mostly middle-class southern farmers to revolt against the Democratic Party by embracing the radical, even revolutionary biracial politics of the People's Party in the 1890s. While other historians of Populism have looked to economics, changing markets, or various ideals to explain this phenomenon, in Righteous Indignation, Joe Creech posits evangelical religion as the motive force behind the shift. This illuminating study shows how Populists wove their political and economic reforms into a grand cosmic narrative pitting the forces of God and democracy against those of Satan and tyranny, and energizing their movement with a sacred sense of urgency. This book also unpacks the southern Protestants' complicated approach to political and economic questions, as well as addressing broader issues about protest movements, race relations, and the American South.

Genres: History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

Joseph W. Creech Jr., Ph.D. (History, University of Notre Dame; M.T.S., Duke University Divinity School; B.A., Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), who publishes as Joe Creech, is assistant director of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts at Valparaiso University where he also teaches in Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University.