Who should have the right to own land, and how much of it? A Squatter's Republic follows the rise and fall of the land question in the Gilded AgeÑand the rise and fall of a particularly nineteenth-century vision of landed independence. More specifically, the author considers the land question through the anti-monopolist reform movements it inspired in late nineteenth-century California. The Golden State was a squatter's republicÑa society of white men who claimed no more land than they could use, and who promised to uphold agrarian republican ideals and resist monopoly, the nemesis of democracy. Their opposition to land monopoly became entwined with public discourse on Mexican land rights, industrial labor relations, immigration from China, and the rise of railroad and other corporate monopolies.

Excerpt from The Rural Credit System Needed in Western Development One of the important questions confronting this country is the creation of a land policy suited to conditions which have arisen in the last quarter of a century. Until recently it was our boast that any man who had industry and thrift could enjoy landed independence. That statement needs now to be qualified. The increase in the number of farm renters compared with the number of farm owners; the colonizing of rural communities with foreign-born immi grants who can and do pay higher rents because they are content with a lower standard of living, are significant indications of the dangers to rural life which need to be removed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.