Radical Protest and Social Structure

Book excerpt: Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890 provides an analysis of the occurrence of protest, its growth, and demise through the study of the Southern Farmers' Alliance, the largest and most radical component of American Populism. The monograph presents historical and sociological facts and aims to interpret protest movements and the social structure they seek to reform. Chapters are devoted to the discussion of tenancy, southern politics, and the spiral of agrarian protest; organization and history of the Southern Farmers' Alliance; the role of the social structure in the behavior of social movements; and the determinants of organized protest. The book will be invaluable to historians, sociologists, researchers, and students.