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Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865-1896 » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865-1896 by Gretchen Ritter

Authors: Gretchen Ritter
ISBN-13: 9780521653923, ISBN-10: 0521653924
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: June 1999
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Gretchen Ritter

Book Synopsis

This is a book about the late-nineteenth-century money debates in American politics, and about the role of history in American political development.

	Preface and acknowledgments
1	The money debate and American political development	1
I	Antimonopolism and the money debate	3
II	History, political development, and the financial debate	9
III	Antimonopolism and economic development	16
IV	Goldbugs and greenbacks: The culture of money	19
V	Organization of the book	26
2	Party politics and the financial debate, 1865-1896	28
I	Perspectives on nineteenth-century party politics	31
II	The Republicans	34
III	The Democrats	41
IV	The antimonopolists	47
V	The election of 1896 as a critical moment in American politics	58
3	Greenbacks versus gold: The contest over finance in the 1870s	62
I	The National Banking System	66
II	The financial standard: Greenbacks or gold?	73
III	The financial conservative position on banking	78
IV	The financial conservatives' defense of the gold standard	83
V	The Greenback critique of the NBS	90
VI	Greenbacks: A monetary alternative	95
VII	Financial philosophies as competing visions of the public good	104
4	The "people's money": Greenbackism in North Carolina, Illinois, and Massachusetts	110
I	North Carolina: Financial reform but little greenbackism	113
II	Illinois: A center for farmer-labor radicalism	123
III	Massachusetts: An early labor reform state	136
IV	Greenbackism and American political development in the 1870s	148
5	The battle of the standards: The financial debate of the 1890s	152
I	Financial conservatism's defense of the gold standard	158
II	Financial conservatism's defense of the NBS	172
III	Monetary reform: Bimetallism, greenbackism, and opposition to the gold standard	178
IV	The financial reformers' critique of the banking system	194
V	Academic findings	200
VI	The victory of financial conservatism	206
6	Populism and the politics of finance in North Carolina, Illinois, and Massachusetts in the 1890s	208
I	North Carolina: An emerging "New South" state	210
II	Illinois and the labor-Populist alliance	226
III	Massachusetts: Home of liberal orthodoxy	241
IV	Conclusion	253
7	Money, history, and American political development	258
I	Evaluating the antimonopoly tradition	260
II	Banking and economic development in Denmark	273
III	The legacy of antimonopolism	276
App. A	Financial terms used between the Civil War and 1896	283
App. B	Major banking and currency legislation, 1860 to 1900	286
App. C	An antimonopolist reading of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	288
	Index	291