The word populism originated with American Midwest farmers, not Europe
Evidence
Rather than with Greek orators, Roman senators, or Nazi stormtroopers, the journey of the word “populism” begins in a small town in the Midwest. In June 1891, a group of rebellious farmers gathered in the city of Omaha, Nebraska, to kick-start a movement that would run in elections the following year, when the group would morph into a fully fledged party—the People’s Party. This party was based on a vast and intricate network of Farmers’ Alliances and producer cooperatives. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 58
Categorization
- DEFINE: Genealogy of the term: born in the 1891 Omaha meeting of the People’s Party and Farmers’ Alliances.
- CANDY: A good elevator fact: ‘populism’ traces to 1890s Nebraska farmers, not European demagogues—only crossing the Atlantic in the 1980s.
- XREF: connects to: Academics carried the word populism from America to Europe — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 66; White Christian nationalism drives right-wing populism in America — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 178; Gilded Age agrarian populists combined speculative imagination with nativism and racism — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 439 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- White Christian nationalism drives right-wing populism in America
#complicates(0.80) — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 178 - Gilded Age agrarian populists combined speculative imagination with nativism and racism
#corroborates(0.78) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 439 - Populism expresses ambivalence toward industrial modernity from its periphery
#expands(0.75) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 41 - Anti-Catholicism in early America was imported from Europe, not locally generated
#corroborates(0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 284