We trace what populism looks like in the 1890s and why it’s less a single doctrine than a coalition of anger, hope, and economic suspicion. We follow the money fight over gold and silver into the Panic of 1893, Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech, and the constitutional conflicts that shaped labor and taxation battles. 
• populism as a shifting set of perspectives rather than a fixed creed 
• farmers as the backbone of the 1890s populist movement 
• deep skepticism of banks and financial institutions as “unproductive” power 
• antitrust and railroad power as recurring targets 
• the gold versus silver currency debate as a fight over inflation and deflation 
• the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the run on gold claims after 1893 
• William Jennings Bryan’s rise and the 1896 election turning on monetary policy 
• John Peter Altgeld, the Pullman Strike, and limits on federal troops for enforcement 
• the “Cross of Gold” speech as economic fairness and national sovereignty rhetoric 
• the early income tax, Pollock (1895), and the long road to the 16th Amendment 
• why the Populist Party fades and gets absorbed into the Democratic coalition

Check Out the Civic Literacy Curriculum!

School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership

Center for American Civics