Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917 (Volume 1999)

by Elizabeth Sanders, Benjamin I. Page (Editor)

Roots of Reform offers a sweeping revision of our understanding of the rise of the regulatory state in the late nineteenth century. Sanders argues that politically mobilized farmers were the driving force behind most of the legislation that increased national control over private economic power. She demonstrates that farmers from the South, Midwest, and West reached out to the urban laborers who shared their class position and their principal antagonist—northeastern monopolistic industrial and financial capital—despite weak electoral support from organized labor.

Based on new evidence from legislative records and other sources, Sanders shows that this tenuous alliance of "producers versus plutocrats" shaped early regulatory legislation, remained powerful through the populist and progressive eras, and developed a characteristic method of democratic state expansion with continued relevance for subsequent reform movements.

Roots of Reform is essential reading for anyone interested in this crucial period of American political development.

Genres: History, American History, Politics

528 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often frustrating and often illuminating, the best part of this book is that contains within it a nonpareil history of a contentious though specialized field, Progressive federal legislation. The book chronicles, in elaborate detail, the legislative histories behind everything from the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 to the Grain Standards Act of 1916. This is its singular focus, and a worthwhile one it is. Reading the minute debates about, for instance, whether to exclude labor organizations from prosecution in the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act, and what language to use in doing so, gives one a real sense of the political battles of the era and what they meant for the country.

On the other hand, the grand thesis of the book, that Midwestern and Southern farmers were the progenitors of most of the Progressive reforms of the era, is often harder to square with those detailed facts. Most major votes on the acts described are accompanied by a three-row chart, showing votes among the "core" representatives (those in industrial districts), "periphery" representatives (those in agriculture districts), and "diverse" representatives (those with mixed constituencies, typically in the Upper Midwest). Unfortunately most of the tallies show that party was much more important in determining votes than location, but sometimes the author's contention bears out. In the early years of the Wilson administration, which consumes close to a majority of the book, the periphery was behind much of the reform, even supposedly commercial-type reforms like the Federal Reserve Act. The author also makes a case that periphery reforms typically involved strict legislative language and eschewed expert commissions, like the ICC or the FTC. Her numbers bear out that these agencies were surprisingly the focus of the "diverse" representatives, more than both core and periphery, and that alliance with these forces caused the periphery to consent to experts they never appreciated.

The author does make a forceful argument that, since the U.S. congressional system is organized around discrete geographic areas, geography, more even than interest groups or national constituencies, must always be central in understanding how American laws get passed. Her final call to revive the clear legislative reforms of the periphery against the ever-encroaching commissions of elite reformers also brings an interesting modern touch to this fascinating tale.

[Nikhil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Sanders argues that agrarian interests primarily pushed through the economic reforms and regulatory institution-building of the Progressive Era. Instead of being fundamentally defeated with the Jennings Bryan campaign in the 1896 election, the efforts of these interests were able to carry through several reforms in the first decades of the 20th century. These "peripheral" agararian groups were not alone; by forming partnerships with labor interests they could accentuate class divisions in their political competition based in the "core" industrial regions of the US. Labor was, nevertheless, considerably weaker than the agrarians according to Sanders, and did not fundamentally direct the course of reform.

These arguments were fairly well substantiated. The passage of key pieces of legislation receive close analysis to determine which members, regions, and interests had the most substantial roles in the process (the second part of the book). Results from elections substantiate many of the claims about America's political divisions and structures at the time. The first part of the book focuses much on that. I found her study of the origins of the Federal Reserve to be perhaps the most interesting section of the book, but the wider political-economic-social narrative drawn out within the whole first part was quite compelling as well. An essential work to understand American industrialization, the later Progressive Era, and the wider trajectory of US political development.

[Melissa]

Pretty dry, as nonfiction history books go, but it has a fascinating argument about the ancestors of the Democratic party, particularly in the Progressive Era.