This book is especially pertinent today after the recent victory by Doug Jones in an Alabama U.S. Senate race for the Democratic Party in a state that went from being dominantly Democratic to dominantly Republican. Populism that led many Alabamans away from the Democratic Party a century ago is now embraced in different ways by both Republicans and Democrats. "This is a valuable study of independent political activity in the mountain and upper piedmont counties of Alabama. It is well organized, imaginatively researched in the relatively limited sources available, and analyzed with consistency and with reference to the work of other scholars."—Appalachian Journal. "Webb has produced a well-written book that deserves the attention of historians interested in Populism and the southern branch of the Republican party."—American Historical Review. "Employing solid evidence from the careers of ex-Populist leaders and from county-level histories of intra- and interparty struggle, Webb makes a convincing case that, in northern Alabama at least, Populism did not fade into crankiness and racism but was transformed into a vital progressivism within the GOP."—Robert McMath, Georgia Institute of Technology. The author, Samuel L. Webb is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, a 2018 paperback reprint of a 1997 hardback release. 286 pages with an Index, Bibliography, Notes, a map, and photos. Trade paperback, $29.95.