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History & Society
Populist Movement
political movement, United States
Weaver, James B.
Category:
History & Society
- Date:
- c. 1892 - c. 1896
- Location:
- United States
- Key People:
- Annie LePorte Diggs
- Ignatius Donnelly
- James B. Weaver
Populist Movement, in U.S. history, politically oriented coalition of agrarian reformers in the Midwest and South that advocated a wide range of economic and political legislation in the late 19th century. Throughout the 1880s, local political action groups known as Farmers’ Alliances sprang up among Midwesterners and Southerners, who were discontented because of crop failures, falling prices, and poor marketing and credit facilities. Although it won some significant regional victories, the alliances generally proved politically ineffective on a national scale. Thus, in 1892 their leaders organized the Populist, or People’s, Party, and the Farmers’ Alliances melted away. While trying to ...(100 of 306 words)