Goldbugs and Greenbacks
The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865–1896

This is a book about the late-nineteenth-century money debates in American politics, and about the role of history in American political development.

Gretchen Ritter (Author)

9780521561679, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 March 1997

320 pages
23.8 x 16 x 2.4 cm, 0.62 kg

"The book will serve as a nice introduction for graduate students and precocious undergraduatesto the debates surrounding finance after Civil War...Her book will serve those not familiar with the antimonopoly tradition well, and it will ultimately stir the blood of those who still embrace that tradition." The Annals of Iowa

In the late-nineteenth century, there was a popular and heated debate over what sort of financial system America should have. Behind the discussions over gold versus silver and state versus national banks was a broader dialogue about sectionalism, class relations, and the future course of the American economy and democracy. Professor Ritter contends that there was a distinctive and neglected political tradition in the United States - the antimonopoly tradition - which was championed by nearly every major agricultural and labor group during the period from the Civil War until 1900. The book explains why the antimonopolists (including the National Labor Union, the Greenbackers, the Knights of Labor, and the Populists) saw the financial system as the key to maintaining economic opportunity and democratic control for all classes and regions.

1. The money debate and American political development
2. Party politics and the financial debate, 1865–1896
3. Greenbacks versus gold: the contest over finance in the 1870s
4. The 'people's money': Greenbackism in North Carolina, Illinois and Massachusetts
5. The battle of the standards: the financial debate of the 1890s
6. Populism and the politics of finance in North Carolina, Illinois and Massachusetts in the 1890s
7. Money, history, and American political development
Appendix A. Financial terms of the 1870s and 1890s
Appendix B. Major banking and currency legislation, 1860–1900
Appendix C. An antimonopolist reading of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]