From the first crises in America’s farming regions in the 1870s through the fracture and demise of grass-roots protest organizations at the end of the century. American Populism chronicles the Populists’ battles with the dominant institutions of an industrializing nation. In this readable and balanced account, Robert McMath examines Populism’s relation to the social and economic networks of rural communities and to churches, schools, fraternal organizations, and trade unions, showing how it became a natural response to dramatically changing times.