Why was Oklahoma, of all places, more hospitable to socialism than any other state in America? In this provocative book, Jim Bissett chronicles the rise and fall of the Socialist Party of Oklahoma during the first two decades of the twentieth century, when socialism in the United States enjoyed its golden age. To explain socialism’s popularity in Oklahoma, Bissett looks back to the state’s strong tradition of agrarian reform. Drawing most of its support from working farmers, the Socialist Party of Oklahoma was rooted in such well-established organizations as the Farmers Alliance and the Indiahoma Farmers’ Union. And to broaden its appeal, the Party borrowed from the ideology both of the American Revolution and of Christianity. By making Marxism speak in American terms, the author argues, Party activists counteracted the prevailing notion that socialism was illegitimate or un-American.

A revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.), Columbia University, 1949. Cf. p. [ix]

"Reflecting on the seminal work of Seymour Martin Lipset, Agrarian Socialism: The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan - A Study in Political Sociology, academics and political practitioners revisit these questions and consider whether the reputation of the best-known social science text on Saskatchewan still holds. As the political practitioners make clear, the geographic and constitutional boundaries may remain as they were, but the economic and cultural boundaries that once defined provinces have manifestly altered if not disappeared as a result of technological change and global perspective."--BOOK JACKET.

From a National Book Award winner, “an indictment of a system that values accumulation, shareholder profit . . . over . . . self-sufficiency, and solidarity.” (Robert Neuwirth, author of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy) John Crowe Ransom's Land! is a previously unpublished work that unites the accomplished literary scholar’s poetic sensibilities with an examination of economics at the height of the Great Depression. Politically charged with Ransom's aesthetic beliefs about literature and his agrarian interpretation of economics, Land! was long thought to have been burned by its author after he failed to find a publisher. Thankfully, the manuscript was discovered, and we are now able to read this unique and interesting contribution to the Southern Agrarian revival. After the publication of the Agrarian movement manifesto I’ll Take My Stand in 1930, Ransom, a contributor, became convinced that the book had not adequately proposed an economic alternative to Northern industrialism, which had fairly obliterated the Southern way of life. Land! was Ransom's attempt to fill this gap. In it he presents the weaknesses inherent in capitalism and proposes instead that agrarianism, which could flourish alongside capitalism, would relieve the problems of unemployment. America, Ransom claims, is unique in offering this opportunity because, unlike in European countries, land is plentiful. “Ransom joins Lauck in championing the values fostered by rural and small-town America. Is this just wishful thinking? Perhaps, and yet don’t we sometimes need to step back before we can leap forward?” —The Washington Post “Ransom’s affection for traditional rural culture provides an enjoyable warm streak in the book.” —Choice “Mr. Ransom’s highly original argument unfolds in beautifully written prose. . . . engaging and thought-provoking.” —George Core, retired editor of The Sewanee Review

Why socialism has failed to play a significant role in the United States - the most developed capitalist industrial society and hence, ostensibly, fertile ground for socialism - has been a critical question of American history and political development. This study surveys the various explanations for this phenomenon of American political exceptionalism.