Notes CH 26 Part 3
The Farm Becomes a Factory – The Mechanization of Agriculture and agri-businesses
America becomes the WORLD’S BREADBASKET AND BUTCHER SHOP  - the Farmer struggles
Farming during the Gilded Age changed dramatically….from raising their own food, making their own
clothing, and bartering for other goods…now they were quickly being drawn into the Capitalist Industrial
American System…
High Prices at this time for certain crops encouraged farmers to cultivate “CASH CROPS,” [wheat & corn
for ex.] and use their PROFITS….to buy food at the GENERAL STORE…and manufactured goods in TOWN
OR BY MAIL-ORDER {Sears & Montgomery Ward- 1st mail order catalogues sent in 1872}
Farming became for many, but not all, a BUSINESS…that required SPECIALIZATION…they became cogs in
a vast Industrial capitalistic economy… THEY HAD TO BUY – MACHINES….TO COMPETE….these machines
were used to plant and harvest crops…
The speed and pace of farming life changed dramatically…as well as the needed business acumen
required to run a LARGE FARM…and COMPETE with the WORLD…agricultural market.
The “Twine-Binder” and the “Combine” were examples of COSTLY MACHINES necessary to turn A
PROFIT  and each FARMER WAS RESPONSIBLE TO “MANAGE” ALL OF HIS BUSINESS IN A FIRST CLASS
MANNER….
Most Farmers in this day were often unskilled as businesspeople and were inclined to blame BANKS AND
RAILROADS…or the VOLATILITY of the MARKETPLACE…rather than their own shortcomings as
businesspeople.
THE MECHANIZATION OF AGRICULTURE CAME SWIFTLY
Driving many farmers off their ancestral lands….and into the industrial urban workforce
Those farmers who would survive achieve miracles of production
THE FARM WAS BECOMING A FACTORY…run properly…ex. 1- BONANZA Wheat FARMS in the
Minnesota-N.Dakotas….by 1890 there were 6 farms over 15, 000 acres each… OR…ex. 2- the Giant farms
in California, irrigated and phenomenally productive…carved out of Giant Spanish-Mexican Land Grants
and the RR’s Huge Land Holdings….”a country of plantations and estates,” with the INVENTION OF THE
REFRIGERATED RR CAR – California Fruit and Vegetable crops could be sold in the rich urban markets of
the east…
THIS FORESHADOWS THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GIANT AGRI-BUSINESSES OF THE FUTURE….
Deflation Dooms the Debtor
Farmers in the West who “chained” themselves to ONE-CASH-CROP…were now in the same boat as
Farmers in the South who were in the same situation, tied to the Cotton Economy…
AS LONG AS PRICES STAY HIGH everyone is happy….BUT…IF THE PRICES FALL  people are miserable…
In the 1880’s – PRICES CRASH*****SO FARMERS CRASH******* what would be the result?
Agricultural prices ARE DETERMINED IN A WORLD MARKET…BY WORLD OUTPUT…..so, if crops flourish
in other Countries….and SUPPLY IS INCREASED….without a corresponding increase in DEMAND….PRICES
FALL…
And in the 1880’s and 1890’s PRICES CRASHED…thus AMERICAN FARMERS CRASHED…
Two issues were the chief concerns of farmers at this time…
LOW PRICES AND DEFLATED CURRENCY
Example:
Effect on loan from prices falling:
If a family had borrowed 1,000$ in 1855 when wheat prices were 1$ a bushel…they would expect to have
to pay back 1,000 bushels of wheat +INTEREST….so about 1250 bushels of wheat….
If the Family was to wait to pay back this debt….say to 1890….when wheat was at 50 cents a bushel…then
they would have to pay their loan back with 2,000 bushels + INTEREST….
Effect on loan from deflation:
Since the amount of currency decreased prices went down even more….IF INFLATION WERE TO OCCUR
SAY DUE TO AN INCREASE IN THE $$$ SUPPLY BY USING ‘GREENBACKS’ OR ‘SILVER’ …prices would
increase and they would need fewer bushels of wheat to pay back their loan + INTEREST…
Thus, the dichotomy…the Nations Monetary choices favored the Creditor-Banker- Industrialist…the
Industrialist was protected by INCREASED TARIFFS ON IMPORTED MANUFACTURED GOODS…KEEPING
THEIR GOODS PRICES ARTIFICIALLY HIGH and increased immigration keeping their LABOR COSTS
LOW…but….to the FARMER WHO HAD TO BUY THESE OVERPRICED GOODS it was another case of BAD
NEWS…AND DUE TO THE MONOPOLISTIC BUSINESS PRACTICES OF RR’S AND OTHER
COMPANIES…harvester trust, combine trust, barbed wire trust…THE FARMER ALSO HAD TO PAY MORE
TO MOVE HIS CROPS, BUY MACHINES TO PLANT AND HARVEST, AND DO WORK AROUND THE FARM….
IN THE END THE FARMER FELT THAT THEY WERE BEING EXPLOITED AND MANIPULATED BY
EVERYONE….What the heck??? What was the Farmer to do…..????
They increase production – purchase more machines - to be able to pay off their debt…BUT THIS IN
TURN INCREASED SUPPLY WHICH LOWERED PRICES EVEN MORE… AND THEY STRUGGLE TO PAY OFF
THE DEBT WHICH THEY INCUR BUYING MORE MACHINES…a hateful cycle….. What was the Farmer to
do???
BANKRUPTCY---for many…By 1890, Nebraska alone counted more than 100,000 farms with mortgage
loans….and when you can’t pay the loan….the Auctioneer comes to sell the family farm…and YOU leave.
On top of all of these problems…Banks charged outrageous INTEREST RATES – from 8 to 40%...(todays
rate for a mortgage are around 3 -5 % depending on your credit score)
Farmers felt as if they were at the mercies of the unscrupulous Banks and Wall St …Octopus….
Tenant Farming or Sharecropping began to spread…The trend was alarming in the South, especially due
to the sinking prices of Cotton…
By 1880 25% of all American Farms were run by TENANTS-RENTERS-SHARECROPPERS….
THE USA FED THE WORLD….BUT …WHO MADE THE PROFIT….AND WHO DID ALL OF THE WORK???
UNHAPPY FARMERS
EVEN MORE BAD NEWS FOR FARMERS…
Mother Nature, always fickle, sent mile-wide clouds of grasshoppers to destroy crops…or the Cotton BollWeevil to inhabit and destroy the cotton crops…Floods, erosion, expensive fertilizers, DROUGHT….
Whole towns were abandoned….”In God we trusted, in Kansas we BUSTED,” “Fifty miles to water, A
hundred miles to wood, to hell with this damned country, I’m going home for good.”
TAXES…Local, State, and National all increase…land was over assessed….Wealthy businessmen paid no
land tax, no personal income tax, or business tax…Stock was not taxed…High protective tariffs protected
their prices..
Farmers made up ½ of the population in 1890…but they were disorganized…The Manufacturers and
Railroad Owners knew how to combine to promote their interests…and did so…into huge monopolies
that flowed $$$ into specific elected officials hands to keep their interests protected…Industrial workers
began to Unionize to protect their interests, as well…
But the Farmer, by nature independent and individualistic…and separated in rural areas…were not
effective in organizing….YET !!!
WHAT THEY DO IS MANAGE TO ORGANIZE A MONUMENTAL POLITICAL UPRISING!!!
THE FARMERS TAKE THEIR STAND
In 1868, during reconstruction, farmers protested when prices fell…and joined the “Greenback Labor
Party,” and were not very successful in pressing the issue…of…demanding inflation of the currency by
using paper $$$$.... 14 were elected to Congress IN 1878, but…eventually disappear… as a political force.
The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (still exists today)– better known as – THE
GRANGE….is organized in 1867. Led by Oliver H. Kelley, a Minnesota farmer then a clerk in DC….
Its 1st objective -was to enhance the lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal
activities.
The Grange spread and by 1875 claimed 800,000 members most in the mid-west and south.
2nd objectives – was collectives…in a determined effort to escape the monopolists control …they
established cooperatively owned stores for consumers and cooperatively owned grain elevators and
warehouses to store their crops…
3rd objectives – they eventually get into politics…in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota….and were
successful in getting legislation passed to regulate railroad rates and storage fees charged by railroads
and owners of grain elevators and warehouses….. Munn v. Illinois in the 1870’s ruled these state actions[
CALLED GRANGER LAWS] that regulated business in the interests of the people
constitutional…..INITIALLY…but in the 1880’s in the WABASH cases they overturn these actions of State
Govt’s claiming that the Fed. Govt ONLY can regulate interstate commerce…
THE GRANGE STILL EXISTS TODAY…BUT THEIR POLITICAL POWER LESSENED AFTER THE WABASH
CASES IN 1886…
Note:
SO…the Grange and the Greenback Labor Party both are early post-war attempts by farmers to address
their needs…primarily to ask for Inflationary money policy and regulation of monopolies in the interests
of the people…they have some fleeting successes BUT…AS THEY TIMES GET WORSE….IN THE 1880’S
AND 1890’S …their protests and organizations increase in size and influence…as we will see…
Prelude to Populism
The Farmer’s Alliance is founded in Texas in the 1870’s….Farmer’s initially came together to socialize,
but….growing discontent…led to them wanting to:
Break the stranglehold of the RR’s and Manufacturers through cooperative buying and selling (like the
grange)…Local Chapters spread throughout the South and the Great Plains during the 1880’s and by 1890
they had over a million members….
The Farmer’s Alliance weakened itself by ignoring the growing number of “Sharecroppers” or “Tenant
Farmers” (same thing) and Farmworkers…AND Even more disabling was its EXCLUSION OF
BLACKS…1/2 OF THE FARMING POP. IN THE SOUTH…
The Blacks create their own “alliance” in the 1880’s called the Colored Farmer’s National Alliance and had
250,000 members in 1890….
THE LONG HISTORY OF RACIAL DIVISION IN THE SOUTH MADE IT DIFFICULT FOR WHITE AND BLACK
FARMERS TO WORK TOGETHER IN THE SAME ORGANIZATION….(violence, lynching, etc…)
********A new political party emerges in the early 1890’s THE PEOPLES PARTY….****************
This party emerges from the Farmer’s Alliance of the 1880’s….THE POPULISTS***********
THE POPULISTS – ATTACKED WALL STREET AND “MONEY TRUSTS” [called the Ocala or Omaha
Platform]***************know both names**************
- Called for Government ownership of the RR’s, Telephone, and Telegraph
- Called for a Graduated Income Tax
- sub-treasury plan for using crops stored in Govt warehouses as a basis for loans
- called for free and unlimited coinage of silver
REMEMBER THERE IS MUCH MORE IN CH 23 PART 2 NOTES…A FULL LIST OF THE “OCALA OR
OMAHA PLATFORM” YOU NEED TO KNOW THESE********
-WILLIAM HOPE HARVEY’s Book, “ Coin’s Financial School,” became a bestseller, and illustrated with
woodcuts…that were part propaganda…FOR THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER…{SEEN BY FARMERS AS
THE ANSWER TO THEIR ECONOMIC TROUBLE…IT WOULD CAUSE INFLATION AND RAISE PRICES}
The story tells of “little professor” Coin Harvey outsmarting the Bankers and Economists with arguments
on behalf of Free Silver….
-Ignatius Donnelly was another who spoke out in support of Populism…a Minnesota Congressman…
-Mary Lease, “Kansas Pythoness,” [pic p. 616 text] stated that POPULISTS…..should, “raise less corn and
more hell.”
In 1892, the POPULISTS proved they were a direct challenge to the TWO established parties, Democrats
and Republicans, by wining several congressional seats, Governorships, control of state legislatures in the
South and mid-west…and even JAMES B. WEAVER…earned more than 1 million votes in that year’s
presidential election.
Weaknesses…Racial Division in some states, not in others….BUT…THIS TOO WAS SOON TO END,
temporarily…AS THE POPULISTS GOAL FOR 1896**************TO TEAM UP WITH THE INDUSTRIAL
WORKERS AND TAKE OVER THE GOVERNMENT FOR REGULAR MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE*************
COXEY’S ARMY AND THE PULLMAN STRIKE – Eugene Debs, leader of Union after strike becomes the
leader into the next century of a GROWING SOCIALIST PARTY….********
The Panic of 1893….**********
The economic panic erupting in 1893….and the ensuing depression that followed HELPED THE
POPULISTS CAUSE********AND GAVE THEIR GOAL FOR 1896 A HUGE BOOST OF MOMENTUM:
TO TEAM THE FARMERS WITH THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS***********
***This is the story of the allegorical “Wizard of OZ”…. {oz. is short for ounce, Tinman-ind. worker &
Scarecrow- farmer etc….
Coxey’s Army (pic p. 617 text)- the depression of 1893 (panic) caused mobs of unemployed workers to
march…(worst depression of the 19th century) to protest their struggles…
Jacob S. Coxey, a wealthy Ohio quarry owner, in 1894, organized a March on Washington…(the 1st ever
organized…but when they get to DC it was hardly a march…so it is not considered the 1st mass protest)
A large group of dissatisfied citizens and reporters documenting their struggle was supposed to descend
on DC…
THEY WANTED:
The US govt to relieve unemployment by an inflationary public works program, supported by
500$million in “legal tender notes” (greenbacks) to be issued by the US Treasury… (they would have to
wait for another 40 years for this…during the New Deal in the 1930’s)
His Army…”We’re coming Grover Cleveland, 500,000 thousand strong, We’re marching on to Washington
to right the nation’s wrong.”
In reality: Coxey’s army was TINY..and they were arrested for “walking on the grass”…not making much
of a protest….
But….violence erupted in other places… CHICAGO – 1894 – THE PULLMAN STRIKE**************
EUGENE V. DEBS LEADS THE ,,,,,,AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION – 150,000….MEMBERS ON STRIKE !!!
The AF of L declined to support the strike…”cowards”…
WHY?
The Pullman Palace Car Co… in which its employees lived in a MODEL Company Town…Cut wages by
1/3rd and kept the RENT on the Company owned houses that every employee had to live in THE SAME.
Violence…RR cars overturned …RR Traffic from Chicago to the Pacific Coast was paralyzed******* [this
gave the federal government the excuse –interfering with the delivery of the mail – to CALL OUT THE US
ARMY…AND …GET THE COURT TO ISSUE AN INJUNCTION (ORDER) TO END THE STRIKE….
Pres. Cleveland, “if it takes the entire Army and Navy to deliver a post card in Chicago, that card will be
delivered.”
The Court issued the injunction and the US Army troops were dispatched…
Interestingly, the Governor of Illinois…felt that the situation was not out of hand and did not need
TROOPS…. They came anyway….
Troops fixed with Bayonets on the ends of their rifles…crushed the strike…DEBS WAS SENTENCED TO 6
MONTHS IN PRISON FOR VIOLATING THE COURT ORDER (INJUNCTION) TO CEASE STRIKING…
Union leader Eugene V. Debs was thrown in jail for 6 months – “ The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism.
I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.” He learns of Socialism in Prison…and later leads the US
Socialist Political Party….and earns over a million votes while running for President later…1900’s.
Response of Labor….Protest of “government by injunction”…THIS WAS THE 1ST TIME THAT SUCH A
LEGAL WEAPON HAD BEEN USED BY WASHINGTON DC-FEDERAL GOVT- TO BREAK A STRIKE…
STRIKERS COULD BE IMPRISONED WITHOUT A JURY TRIAL…
POPULISTS AND OTHERS WERE UPSET AS WELL….PROVING AN ALLIANCE EXISTED BETWEEN BIG
BUSINESS AND THE US GOVT & COURTS…AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PEOPLE********
Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan
The Election of 1896 –
Conservatives, Creditors, Wealthy, Monopolists….ALL FEARED AN IMPENDING REVOLUTION…
Workers, Debtors, Farmers, poor….wanted political help to solve the economic crises…
The issue: Monetary Policy….Conservatives want the Gold Standard and Deflation
….Populists and Democrats want Silver and Inflation
Republicans Nominate William McKinley from Ohio…he was a Civil War Vet, former Congressmen,
sponsored the High Tariff named after him….and supported DEFLATION AND THE GOLD STANDARD.
Rep’s also have help from the “wizard” Mark Hanna, election campaign manager for Mckinley….
Hanna believed that the prime function of Government was to aid business…He believed that prosperity –
“TRICKLED DOWN”---from the Wealthy to the “masses”…HANNA RAISES HUGE $$$$ FROM THE
CORPORATIONS TO KEEP TARIFFS HIGH AND THE GOLD STANDARD…AND NO REGULATION OF
BUSINESS…THIS $$$$ IS THE law on unintended consequences…due to the Pendleton Act passed after
Garfield’s assassination… candidates running for office would increasingly turn to corporations to fund
their campaign’s…
The Populists and Democrats BOTH NOMINATE …WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN…*******
A new “Moses” appears in Bryan, young congressman from Nebraska…36, and he gives the speech of his
life—called the “CROSS OF GOLD SPEECH”--- “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown
of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.””***********************huge************
The Democrats nominate Bryan after the speech…they demanded the “unlimited coinage of Silver” at a
ratio of 16 oz of Silver to 1 oz of Gold… (the market was about 32 to 1) This meant that the silver dollar
would be worth about 5o cents…and inflationary….
Democratic –Gold Bugs – left their party over the silver issue….and voted for McKinley
The Populists had a dilemma… because the Democrats had taken their silver issue…MOST ENDORSED A
FUSION WITH THE DEMOCRATS….(except in Va and NC where the Populists fused with Republicanswho supported silver) THE POPULISTS ALSO NOMINATE …WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN….
Republican McKinley versus Populist/Democrat Bryan….IT WAS A HEAVYWEIGHT STRUGGLE….IN
1896*******ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ELECTIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY************
Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders
Bryan spoke in 27 States and traveled 18,000 miles making 600 speeches…36 in one day….
“Prairie avenger, mountain lion, [wizard of oz – cowardly lion]
Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan,
Gigantic Troubadour, speaking like a siege gun,
Smashing Plymouth Rock with his boulders
From the West.”
Free Silver became a religious and financial issue….Hordes of fanatical free-silverites hailed BRYAN as the
MESSIAH…to lead them out of the wilderness of DEBT….
“Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but
destroy our farms and the grass will grow in every city in the country.” WJB – “Cross of Gold Speech”
Bryan issues a warning to the Republican/industrialist/monopolist/creditor….CAUSING
PANIC*****
EASTERN CONSERVATIVES WERE IN PANIC….The “Gold Bugs” (democrats who left to vote for
McKinley) respond calling Bryan a “fanatic”, “madman,” traitor-murderer, “IN GOD WE TRUSTWITH BRYAN WE BUST,”
FEAR GRIPPED THE WEALTHY*********
MARK HANNA[the wizard] WENT DOOR TO DOOR- CORPORATION TO CORPORATION- RAISING
$$$$$$
AND RAISED AN ENOURMOUS “SLUSH FUND” (similar to Nixon’s in 1972- which leads to Watergate)
16 million$$$ - “McKinley and the Full Dinner Pail”….the largest campaign fund in American
History….to this point was raised due to the FEAR….OF BRYAN AND THE POPULISTS…(who only
could raise 1 million$) …
Republican business people….used this fear AND $$$$…to manipulate voters
PLACING CONTRACTS FOR ORDERS CONTINGENT ON MCKINLEY WINNING, FACTORY OWNERS
MARCHING THEIR EMPLOYEES TO VOTE AND GIVING THEM PRE-FILLED OUT BALLOTS…AND
FIRED THOSE ON THE SPOT IF THEY REFUSED TO VOTE FOR MCKINLEY, “ DO NOT COME TO WORK
TOMORROW IF BRYAN WINS,” EMPLOYERS THREATENED TO CUT WAGES IN ½…..”SAVE AMERICA”
On election day….Mckinley wins 271 to 176 in the electoral vote…and 7.1 million to 6.4 million, closer,
in the popular vote….
Bryan lost the East….won the South and West…..thus lost this election…the hoped combination of
Industrial Laborer and Agricultural Farmer…NEVER HAPPENED… MOST INDUSTRIAL LABORERS
VOTED FOR THEIR JOBS…IN FEAR….*****************SEE ELECTION MAP P. 636 IN TEXT….****
EFFECTS OF THE ELECTION OF 1896 –ONE OF THE MOST SIG. IN AM. HISTORY*****
The election of 1896 started a new era in American Politics….The outcome was a resounding victory for
BIG BUSINESS AND BIG $$$$ IN POLITICS…..Bryan’s defeat marked the last serious effort to win the
white house with mostly farmers votes….THE FUTURE OF PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS LAY NOT ON THE
FARMS BUT…IN THE MUSHROOMING CITIES…
The Republican victory in 1896 also continued the Republicans grip on the white house for 16 more
years…all but 8 of the next 36 years…(Woodrow Wilson is the exception from 1912 -1920) ….
This also began a period of diminished voter participation….the “common man” was
whupped….temporarily….issues like the monetary system and civil service reform were to be replaced
with concern for industrial regulation and the welfare of industrial labor…..This new era is called the
“FOURTH PARTY SYSTEM” …WHICH LASTS UNTIL 1932 AND FDR.
Republican Stand-Pattism Enthroned
“Safe” William McKinley took office in 1897….he seemed to always get in line with his corporate
partners…his cautious, conservative, nature caused him to fight reform….Business was given a free hand
in DC and the TRUSTS which had trusted him…and paid him a lot of $$$$$ were allowed to CONTINUE to
develop more and more control over the nation without any serious restraint from the government in
DC…
Due to the Tariff not raising enough $$$ to run the Govt for the Corporations….THE DINGLEY TARIFF
BILL WAS PASSED IN 1897…OVER 850 AMENDMENTS WERE ADDED TO THE BILL…RAISING THE
TARIFF RATE TO 46.5% ON AVERAGE ONE OF THE HIGHEST EVER…AND PROTECTING THE CAPITALIST
INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURERS…of course…
The Depression which began in 1893…cycles away… and things economically slowly get
better…PROSPERITY…began to rise…Farm Prices rose….Republicans claim credit…of course…so THE BIG
ISSUE….GOLD V. SILVER…ENDS ITS 35 YEAR STRUGGLE…NEW GOLD DEPOSITS ARE DISCOVERED IN
ALASKA, AUSTRALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, AND CANADA and brought huge amounts to the market…thus
INFLATION  CONGRESS PASSES THE GOLD STANDARD ACT IN 1900, and due to the glut of gold on the
market and inflation…no one noticed or cared…the silver issue was dead…
Note: Only two elections in American History….1932 and 2008…were decided by the masses of the
middle and lower classes successfully teaming up and out voting the wealthy…both coming on the heels
of major financial crises….CHANGE DOES COME…just not yet….
Varying Viewpoints – Was the West really “Won”
Until about 1990 the “Turner Thesis”…. dominates historical writing… about the WEST. In his famous
essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” FJT argued that the Frontier Experience
molded both region and nation. Not only the West, but the National Character had been uniquely shaped
by Westward movement. Pioneers had brought the raw West into the embrace of Civilization. And the
struggles to overcome the hazards of the western wilderness—including distance, deserts, drought, and
Indians---had transformed Europeans into tough, inventive, and self-reliant
Americans.************huge*****************************************************************************
Turner’s thesis raised a question that Americans found intriguing in 1893…since the “Frontier” was
closed, according to the Census, WHAT NEW FORCES, WOULD SHAPE A DISTINCTIVE AMERICAN
NATIONAL CHARACTER…NOW THAT THE FRONTIER WAS GONE????
As the Frontier Era recedes from memory….scholars are less persuaded that Turner’s thesis adequately
explains the NATIONAL CHARACTER….AMERICANS ARE STILL VERY DIFFERENT FROM EUROPEANS
AND THE FRONTIER DISAPPEARED OVER 100 YEARS AGO….
Modern scholars look at several questionable assumptions made by Turner; 1- that the Frontier only was
a boundary between diverse cultures each with its own claim of legitimacy and possession of the
land….thus the frontier should not be understood as the place where “civilization triumphed over
savagery”…but as the PRINCIPAL SITE OF CULUTRAL INTERACTION… 2- New Western Historians,
Limerick, White, and Worster…suggest that the cultural and ecological damage inflicted by advancing
industrial “civilization” must be accounted for…and insist that the West did not LOSE ITS REGIONAL
IDENTITY WHEN THE FRONTIER CLOSED IN 1890…they argue that the WEST is still UNIQUE…a part of
a MOSAIC…whose history, culture, and identity remain every bit as distinctive as those of New England
and the South, today….
2- continued…New Western historians emphasize not the Frontier as the shaper of the Unique Western
Character…BUT…ethnic and racial confrontation, topography, climate and the roles of big business and
government as THE FACTORS that have MADE THE MODERN WEST….they REJECT TURNER’S
THESIS…they don’t believe American settlers TAMED THE WEST…BUT “CONQUERED IT”…by
suppressing the Native American and Hispanic peoples who had preceded them into the region…but
those conquests were less than complete…and so therefore the WEST REMAINS AN UNSETTLED REGION
OF COMMINGLING AND COMPETITION AMONG THESE GROUPS STILL…and furthermore…the CLIMATE
AND GEOGRAPHY WAS NOT “TAMED” BY THE LONELY WHITE MAN…because IN REALITY…IT TOOK
MASSIVE CORPORATIONS AND ESPECIALLY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS INVESTMENTS IN TCRR
AND IRRIGATION PROJECTS…TO ALLOW HUMAN HABITATION IN MANY AREAS….STILL TODAY…
Such developments according to the NEW WESTERN HISTORIANS…still give WESTERN LIFE ITS SPECIAL
CHARACTER TODAY.